This is the story of another Harry Potter
by outofcharacter
Summary: This is the story of a HP who is not the likeable, nice, Dumbledore-adoring golden boy of canon. This is my take on another outcome of someone with Harry's background. Harry is not evil, but that doesn't mean he's a hero, or even all that nice. ON HIATUS.
1. Chapter 1

This is the story of another Harry Potter. Not the likeable, nice absolute Dumbledore-adoring golden boy of the canon books. This is my take of a (to me) more realistic outcome of someone in Harrys situation, with his background.

Canon-Harry is not by any means perfect, but he IS a very nice guy. A little too nice and untraumatized in my opinion, seeing as how much his life has sucked.

I am going to try keeping everyone else as canon as possible (though they may as time progress develop differently than they did in canon) as I do not want them to out of character, though I realize I may fail at this somewhat as it is not an easy thing to do;)

Anyways my story will begin much like canon, with the defeat of Voldemort and Harry´s newfound status as an orphan.

**Chapter one – the boy who lived to be abandoned by his world**

The Dursleys lived on number four Private Drive and were everything they are already known to us all for being; Narrow-minded, boring, ordinary in every way and most prominently ridiculously proud of these facts.

No closer description is needed as I think we all know these people from canon, so let´s move on shall we?

The day of Voldemorts defeat went by unnoticed by these ignorant people. The following day though would be memorable to even these mundane people.

Vernon's odd day, filled with strange-looking cats and overly joyous weirdoes hugging him for no apparent reason, had ended, but before this day was to end the life of the Dursley family would change significantly due to a new very unwelcome addition in the form of an orphaned little abandoned hero-child.

An intentionally odd man we all know now as Albus Dumbledore appeared on the quiet street late at night when all the normal, unremarkable people of Privet Drive had gone to bed.

"I should have known I would come across you here Minerva", he said knowingly to the cat which had been stationed determinately at the brick wall next to the Dursley´s residence all through the day.

A pointless discussion followed suit as I am sure we all remember, with Dumbledore convincing poor McGonagall of the truth in the rumors of the Potters death and Voldemorts consequent, if temporary, defeat.

In no time Hagrid arrives, as we all also should know, on Sirius flying motorbike.

Now for the events of this night; Dumbledore who appears to stand over the ministry have decided, by himself, that Harry should be placed in the care of Lily´s estranged sister who none of them know at all, rather than in the care of any of the many friends of the Potter family.

McGonagall is reluctant but easily persuaded by the much overly estimated Dumbledore and his reasoning on blood-wards safety (although if they wanted to there must be several other options of security they could explore, especially with the help of the ministry) and of preventing the baby from suffering from a big head and arrogance in the future.

Hagrid who obviously worships the ground Dumbledore stands on does not even think to really object other than putting forward some loose complaints about muggles in general and a lot of sniveling.

Dumbledore for some unexplained reason puts baby Harry down on the doorstep to really mark that this is plain abandonment and nothing else. The rational thing to do would be to simply ring the doorbell and talk this over face to face with the Dursley family so that they can get a clear understanding of what has actually happened.

But hey, Albus can´t risk ruining his image of unashamed insanity with doing something logical like that.

Instead he just leaves the baby out in the cold night on some strangers doorstep with a note "explaining the situation", which must be one of the top ten most insensitive ways of telling someone their sister has just died.

With his work done the great Dumbledore shooed his two employees away, leaving him by himself to stare at the bundle of blankets lying on the porch which he knew to contain someone who would from this day forth be known as the savior of the wizarding world.

"Good luck, Harry", he mumbled before sweeping away, not to even really check up on the little savior for a decade to come.

Well, at least the baby was not likely to get a big head, I mean being abandoned by ones entire world on a doorstep can´t exactly be a confidence-booster.

No, no one would check up on the boy who lived, a small child was of no more use to Dumbledore before he was older. The question is how keen this little boy is going to be on helping the world who turned their backs on him.

Remember, really he shall have no roots in this to him supposedly unknown wizarding world; therefore he should not feel he owes them anything, should he?

I wonder if not the great mind of Albus Dumbledore is rather overestimated, as because of his decisions Harry Potter, the boy who lived will be like an unstable potions experiment; he could turn out any way.

All the control Dumbledore cares to have in the upbringing of the boy who lived only to be abandoned, is a squib living nearby making sure he is still alive, has not been placed somewhere else and is not allergic to cats.

How will this uncertain experiment turn out? We shall see…


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two – the reality of a cynical child**

Almost ten years had passed since the Dursleys woke up to find their nephew dumped on their doorstep, with a written explanation to how Petunias sister had died and that she was now expected to take in Lily's son.

The house on number four Private Drive looked very much the same as a decade ago.

The walls of the living room were now covered in a number of photos showing of Dudley Dursley during various stages of his life so far. Some of them also included his parents and a few even some of their friends. There were no signs of Harry Potter being a part of their lives on any of the walls though. But he was there, of course.

He was lying on a small, slightly too short cot inside the cupboard under the stairs. He had woken up some minutes ago but at the moment he was relaxing into his not so soft mattress savoring the silence. He contemplated the roof above his head which consisted of the unpolished backside of the stairs, which got lower the closer to his feet they got. Several spiders were up there making nets, on had started dangling itself downwards towards his head. _I should really find some sort of chemical to kill of the spiders, this is getting disgusting, it´s almost as if they are procreating, they must be as they are getting so many…_

_Oh, no, footsteps. They´re getting up. Sigh. End of peace and quiet then. Might as well get going before that scarecrow start screeching outside my door, I´m really not in the mood to listen to that horrible voice, god I hate her… _"Only seven more years and I´m out of here", he chanted quietly to himself, like many times before.

Harry had plans. A lot of them. He wanted to see the world. He had spent far too much time staring at the ceiling of a cupboard; he was going to see everything once he got the chance.

His plans were very well thought out and specific for someone of merely eleven. Like most who do not want to be where they are he felt trapped but he felt comforted from the knowledge that he was going to escape one day. He was getting out of this godforsaken place and he was never coming back.

But all in due time. He had a plan and he knew it would be more constructive biding his time as best he could until he came of age.

Not that he had never been tempted to simply run away from these obnoxious, barely tolerable people surrounding him, because he had, many times.

But Harry Potter was smart enough to realize that running away would not be the best way to build the life he wanted for himself. Sure, this was barely better than an orphanage, but at least he knew this place and its rules. He did the best he could with whatever he was actually given.

Harry Potter was only ten but he knew what he wanted and he made elaborate plans on how to get it.

He wanted a good life. He wanted to be free, liberated of these horrible shallow people, free to do whatever he wished, free to go anywhere he pleased.

He was a child, and he did not like it. He longed for independence. But as it was, he did the best of the situation, he planned on everything he wanted to do in his life and he used his time learning new things which could come in handy later on. He excelled in school because he knew it would be very important to him later.

He spent as much time as he could away from the Dursleys home, or when he was in it he went to his cupboard or some other secluded hid-away place to read or draw and fantasize of great places he might visit some day.

Harry felt a lot of longing. He felt longing for other places and sometimes for someone who actually cared about him. But he was not entirely unhappy because he had, at least, his mind, where he was always free to go anywhere and do anything. His mind was the only thing he really ever owned.

Harry wanted to be someone else a lot of the time, someone who was not looked upon with disgust and considered a constant nuisance merely for existing.

He wanted to be someone, someone with the power to be free in most aspects, he wanted to have a job he excelled at, he wanted money because they brought with them independence as well.

If you wanted to meet a goal-oriented ten-year old you should visit Harry James Potter.

He knew what he wanted and he was going to get it.

But right now he was going to go start making breakfast before the hag of the house started screeching at him to do so.

_Oh no! Not again. Damn this day just got worse. _He just realized that it was Dudley´s birthday today. This was going to be a very long day.

His eyes wandered over the massive mountain of Dudley´s presents on the kitchen floor. He was not too jealous although he himself had received merely a few pair of socks for his last birthday.

He saw what Dudley was and it was nothing he could ever envy. Harry knew Dudley would not do well in a world where he was not pampered anymore and did not get special treatment. The real world was going to be tough on Dudley. With that in mind Harry started frying things. His obese cousin and uncle´s favorite food were all fried. It disgusted Harry somewhat.

He rubbed his eyes and yawned. He traced his boltening-light shaped scar. He remember asking how he got it once a few years back. _"In the car crash that killed your parents, now do not ask any questions"_, Petunia had replied with a sneer.

Harry snorted. 'Do not ask any questions', the stupidity. No wonder they were always going to be nothing but ordinary, mediocre nobodies. But that seemed to satisfy them, such simple creatures Harry mused.

To be perfectly honest Harry despised them, not only for how they treated him, but for their stupidity and simplemindedness more than anything else. He almost pitied them for their boring minds, but not really for he resented them also for the people they chose to be.

While Harry was deep in thought the Dursleys had all entered the kitchen.

Vernon demanded bacon so Harry went over to the table to scoop over a load of it on his uncle´s plate, who was Harry to delay him in his apparent quest to clog up his arteries further?

Harry left the frying pan on the table and helped himself to some while continuing doing his best to ignore the insufferable people surrounding him at the moment.

While Harry contemplated a problem he had gotten stuck on while doing algebra the previous day Dudley started in on his presents, packing up a new bike, a new television, a camera and a number of other expensive things Dudley was going to either break or not use.

Harry did his best to ignore a tantrum Dudley threw realizing he got fewer presents then last year.

Harry could not help smirking slightly inwardly though at how pathetic Dudley was.

After Petunia and Vernon, as was their practice, immediately caved and bribed their son with the promise of more stuff to come, the phone rang.

Apparently Mrs. Figg, the old lady who usually looked after Harry when the Dursleys wanted to go do something fun as a family, had broken her leg and could not look after Harry today as the family celebrated Dudleys birthday with going to the zoo.

Harry did not care much for Mrs. Figg. She looked at him funnily, like she knew something about him she was not telling him and no one should be as obsessed with cats as she seemed to be.

The Dursleys were angry, but there was nothing they could do.

They considered leaving him alone at home but decided they did not trust him not to break any of their things if left alone.

Piers, an unpleasant friend of Dudleys arrived and they had to take off, with Harry as well. This pleased Harry despite the fact that it meant more time spent with the Dursleys and their unpleasant associations, because he had always wanted to see the zoo.

The day was not entirely unpleasant as Harry managed to get to see a big number of animals he had never before laid eyes on other then in pictures. He 'got lost' from the rest of the group as fast he could and spent the day exploring. He managed to avoid the others who obviously did not go out of their way to find him.

Something remarkable happened to him when he was looking at the amphibians. He was very interested in a big snake with stripes which looked very majestic.

He was just getting a closer look, when suddenly it hissed at him. Only it was not just a hiss, it _talked _to him.

"Welllll, aren´t you preciousss little one. Such big eyesss…", Harrys eyes widened.

"Did you just… Speak?", he questioned dumbly.

"… My, my, you can hear me? How very interesssting. I have never met anyone of you who cannn… Who are you?"

"I´m Harry. You?"

"Eszklastra, my, my how extraordinary to talk to one of your sort, I never realizzzed it was a gift your kind could possesssss…"

"Yes, so you mean all snakes can talk, humans just don´t understand them?" Harry was excited. This opened up a whole new dimension, how intelligent were animals really? He might have to rethink exterminating the spiders in the cupboard…

"Yesss, that is correct little one."

"Well, it has been very interesting meeting you but I must be getting back out of here, the park is closing soon. Goodbye Eszklastra." Harry said politely.

"Goodbye, little one, do come visssit ssssometime." Harry waved to the snake before he made his way to the gate of the zoo. He got to the car where the Dursleys and Piers were waiting. Harry got yelled at for most of the ride home for 'getting lost', but it was so worth it he mused silently. This day had turned out much better than he thought it would.

He zoomed out the annoying voices and instead he thought about snakes, and some strange dreams he seemed to have had since forever featuring green lights and flying motorcycles.

The following weeks he managed to locate several other snakes outside in the grass a bit outside of town. He could talk to all of them.

At school he had no friends, Dudley had made sure of that. Before he used to hide from Dudley and his gang during breaks somewhere where he could read or study something. Now he went out in the high grass just outside school grounds, searching for snakes. He found they could be very interesting talking to and he grew increasingly fonder of the specie.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter three – The suspicious letter**

Summer had reached Privet Drive. It was holiday for children all over Britain. To Harry it made little difference.

On one hand he was constantly hunted by a gang of bullies at school, but as the leader-bully lived in the same house as Harry there were no more means of escaping these unpleasant characters during school break than during term.

On the other hand Harry actually liked school, which was ideal for someone like him whose main goal at the moment was to learn as many things as possible in order to promote his plans for the future.

Therefore Harry was somewhat displeased about the long school break, but as he had a library card and the Dursleys hardly ever asked where he went to as long as he was out of their way and not causing trouble, he felt he did not entirely waste his time anyway.

Harry spent much of his days at the local library or in other secluded places reading borrowed books. His favorite places to withdraw too were massive old trees.

He liked them so much because far up there no one could see him in the midst of the thick bushy branches while he himself still could keep attentive to his surroundings.

This was of course something he did not always do though, as one of the charms of being up in the air, in a room of leafs and branches, was that it felt like another world and allowed him to disconnect from the distasteful reality around him.

It was easier to go inside the reality of whatever book he was absorbed in presently with peaceful neutral surroundings such as these.

Harry had always felt like an alien outsider around the Dursleys. Curiously rather than getting better with age this alien feeling appeared to increase as more time went by; recently Harry felt more distant from them than ever.

This did not only apply to the Dursleys, even though the feeling was extra strong with them due to how simple and hopelessly dull he found them and their practically nonexisting imagination.

But he had for as long as he could remember also felt a certain distance to most people he met.

It was barely palpable and difficult to describe. It was just a feeling he had always had. Most of the time Harry felt like an alien in the company of others. It was not that he minded most of them in any way; he just did not feel really connected to any of them.

He contemplated sometimes if perhaps this was sad. He simply did not know; he never grieved the fact particularly, he had been rather solitary for as long as he had been conscious enough of his surrounding to reflect on the matter.

When analyzing his predicament he concluded that it did not much matter as this was how it was, and that was that.

He had always been on his own so he did not fully appreciate or understand the meaning or feeling of friendships and loyalty.

Harry was loyal only to himself as that was all he had always had and trusted to have forever. He always figured that friends like objects one could lose; the only 'thing' one could be certain to have in possession until ones death is yourself, this is therefore all you should let yourself rely on in the end, was his philosophy.

Harry enjoyed conversing with intelligent people from time to time, because of what it brought him in the form of possible new knowledge or at least another point of view on a matter.

Although he could sort of be slightly fond of people like this, who could teach him new things and who were interesting talking to, he did not find himself ever getting very attached to them.

He was so used to being on his own he never even considered counting anyone else into the equation of his future.

It was not that he was coldhearted; he just did not feel any connection to all these people to any real extent.

The upcoming school year Harry was going to go to another school than Dudley; Harry was going to Stonewall community school while his cousin was to attend a private school which apparently Vernon also had attended in his youth.

The fact that Vernon had graduated from this school, Harry did not think spoke much to its credit.

Also their uniforms were obviously ghastly as had been demonstrated by Dudley who had taken to parade around in his during the last few days.

Harry was no snob but he did have some sense of style and that combination, especially on a fat lump like his cousin, was dreadful to say the least.

One morning when Harry got up it was to an awful smell coming from the kitchen. As he reached the source of the stench he grasped that it was some articles of clothing being colored in the washbasin. Grey. Grey was the color of the uniforms at Stonewall… _Uhuh. No. No. Eew. I´m going to have to wear that, right? God, I needn´t even ask. It is not as if anyone else living in this house would ever be made to wear that old junk. I need to get a job. Or learn how to steel… No better not risk my future like that, it could look bad on my records, what if I ever wanted to become a police officer, I could never do that with a criminal record. Though why would I suddenly want to do that is beyond me, however better keep my options open. Hmm, a politician maybe? Then it wouldn´t matter if I was a criminal as long as I am discreet… I wonder if there is someone who would hire a ten-year-old? Not a black market job, I am not Oliver Twist. Paperboy? Ugh. I wish it was ten years from now, right now. What would I be doing? _

_I wonder if that garden snake from yesterday is still somewhere around, I must go check, I need someone at least somewhat intelligent to speak to before I develop a multiple personality disorder or schizophrenia out of pure boredom…_

"Don´t just stand there with your nose in the washbasin you hopeless child, go do something useful, flip the eggs over", Petunia suddenly interrupted his wandering thoughts.

Harry made the eggs and some toast before retreating to his usual chair with a mug of tea, as he is British, and no real British character can get by more than a chapter or two without some tea.

He finished his tea and a piece of toast quickly so that he would not have to share a table with the two incoming pigs.

Harry decided to go out and look for the garden snake he met yesterday which was very nice, before heading to the library. He had started trying to learn French with the help of dictionaries, some grammar books and a librarian who luckily was from France originally, as he found French a lovely language.

He halted by the door though. There was mail on the doorstep. Nothing strange about that really, normally he would have just picked it up and put it on a nearby table or in the kitchen. But today there was a letter addressed to Harry lying there, overly visibly in the pile of mail due to the green ink it was addressed in.

This was most surprising as Harry had never gotten a letter before. He had no friends, no other relatives and he always made sure to be on time with his borrowed library books as he had no money to pay a delayment fee. Who could possibly have written him? Was it advertising? No, he was a child, that would not be addressed to him he concluded. He picked it up to read the full address; **Mr. Harry Potter, the cupboard under the stairs, **

**Private Drive 4, Little Whinging, Surrey**

Alright, now he was pissed. This was such a, not only cruel but rather creepy joke as well. No real letter would be addressed this specifically, to _the_ _cupboard under the stairs_. Who knew where he slept?

Well the Dursleys obviously, but he happened to know that neither Petunia nor Vernon had any sense of humor to speak of; therefore a stunt like this from them was unlikely.

Dudley? Possibly, if he had the help of a smarter friend with much better handwriting. It could hardly be from anyone else. It was possible that some of the kids at his (former) school might know he lived in a cupboard, if Dudley told them.

That was the only realistic possibility. As he assumed this was a prank letter of some sort from Dudley and his gang, it was definitely best not to open it as it was likely to contain something disgusting.

Where to dispose of it? Perfect, the fireplace in the living room. He lit a match, setting fire to the suspicious letter and watching it burn before finally leaving the house.

His day went by with nothing further out of the ordinary taking place. He came back as was his habit in the late afternoon, in time for dinner. He ate some stew while Petunia glared at him for a while because he had not seen fit to return earlier so that he could have helped with dinner.

He threw some glances at Dudley to decide if he showed any signs of surprise over the fact that his prank letter had seemingly not reached Harry. Oddly enough he was his regular disgusting self and did not show any signs of anything being amiss. Harry soon had to stop watching him in pure disgust over his cousin's deplorable table manners.

Although everything seemed normal enough as Harry went to bed after this unexciting day, oddness followed the very next day.

Harry awoke early and decided to go out for a stroll before breakfast. When he reached the front door however he stopped in his tracks.

Seriously, if it was Dudley doing this he really needed to get a life. There were now three letters lying on the doorstep, identical to that from the previous day.

Now Harry was curious. What did they want? He decided it was worth the risk of finding something gross in one of them just to satisfy his growing curiosity.

He did not however, in case it really was a prank, want to give Dudley the satisfaction of enjoying the spectacle of Harry falling for it.

Therefore he brought the letters with him outside. A while later up in one of his favorite threes, a big old birch, he held his breath as he ripped one open. Nothing happened so he glanced inside of the envelope.

There were pieces of old-looking paper there. Parchment he decided. How interesting, no matter what this was at least they used nice paper to write letters.

He opened one and skimmed it over. Then he read it again, thoroughly this time. Then, he skimmed it over once more. Harry did not know what to make out of this. If this was a joke he admired its sophistication. He somehow knew it couldn´t be; no one he knew had the brains to pull something like this off.

Assuming this was no joke, but an invitation to a school of witchcraft, he was a wizard? First he laughed at the idea of witchcraft being reality but his smile faded fast as he recalled memories of strange things happening around him.

He should have known, in some sense he did know that it was he himself who caused these things to happen.

He had felt it at the times, felt something working within him; power. He had thought he imagined these surges of power as he found no logical explanation for how he would have been able to do these things; he remembered several occasions straight away.

There was the time when Dudley and his friends chased him and suddenly he was on the other side of the high fence by the school. He had thought he just missed passing an opening, but he remember a familiar feeling in his chest right before it happened.

Then there was the time when that horrible little dog of aunt Marge´s (Harry shuddered just thinking about that horrible woman) had tried to bite him and suddenly it had no teeth.

This had scared Harry as he knew he was going to be blamed for this happening; he always was when strange things happened. He had left to go inside, waiting with dread for the adults to find the dog in this state.

There had been nothing he could do as he did not understand how it had happened or how he could possibly reverse it.

He had hoped with all his heart that they would not find the dog like that. The thing was, they didn´t. They searched for the dog later but could never find it. Marge was devastated of course and went home early to grieve, there were never any more signs of the dog and the adults assumed it had been run over by some car.

Thinking back now Harry realized he might have done that accidentally without realizing, just by his intensive wishing. This amazed him. If this was accidental magic it was most definitely dangerous not to know how to control it.

But if he, Harry, was a wizard and there obviously were more of them, what decided who was? Was it like a 'gift' some were born with randomly? Was it like a gene you inherited? Now, wait. The Dursleys knew.

They had to, that was why they always blamed him when strange things happened. He had always assumed it was because they did not like him and therefore it was easy blaming him for everything wrong with their lives.

Now it felt as if pieces in a big puzzle were slowly rearranging themselves inside of Harry´s head. They knew. If they knew, it seemed they had done so from when he was very small, going by his memories.

Was this other world of wizards and magic commonly known just not talked about, kind of like the locations of some illegal businesses? But then would not Harry somehow have found out before today? He was more perceptive than his close-minded relatives after all. No, it did not seem plausible that everybody knew; it was a secret.

How strange, he had to wonder how it was possible to keep such a secret. Then he thought again, taking into the consideration how dense and self-absorbed most people are, and suddenly it made perfect sense.

Then why would the Dursleys know? Was it a family trait that popped up now and then, every other generation perhaps?

Harry knew next to nothing of his parents as the Dursleys obviously shunned the Potters and refused to tell Harry anything about them. Harry had, before now, not cared much to know about them either.

He knew it was probably irrational of him but somehow he was a bit angry with them for dying on him, leaving him to be raised by people who clearly disliked him immensely.

Now he could not help but wonder if they had the same 'gift' or whatever, as Harry himself appeared to have. If they did, that explained the Dursleys overly obvious contempt for them, as they hated anything abnormal.

Apparently they did not recognize a talent when they saw one Harry mused. Maybe they were afraid; if he could do the things he did unintentionally as such a young age, he must be able to do a lot more if he learned how to control it.

Learning to control it would be important, he realized as much. But he had a lot of questions he needed answered before he sent a reply accepting the offer of a spot as a pupil at this school.

"We expect your owl by July 31 at the latest", what was that supposed to mean? Did they think he had a trained post owl? Was that normal to them? If it was, were they really stupid enough not to realize not everyone else did?

Harry decided to find a solution to how he would reply later and start on a list of questions he had first.

**To Minerva McGonagall or whomever may be responsible of handling the replies to the acceptance letters to Hogwarts.**

**I received an invitation to this, to me formerly unknown school just today. You wrote for me to "send you my owl", but as I have no owl (is that code for something else or do you actually mean owl as in the animal?) nor do I know anyone who does (why would they?) I do not know how to send my reply, but I suppose I will have to figure that out in order for this to get to you. **

**This is not my reply of acceptance or declining. As I had never before this day heard of this 'other world', I have a lot of questions I need answered before I decide as to whether it is in my best interest to attend Hogwarts or not.**

**What exactly does the curriculum include? I see subjects such as transfiguration mentioned in the letter of acceptance. That sounds interesting and all, but which subjects in total are available? There are regular subjects, such as math, English and social science besides these rather abstract sounding 'magic-related' subjects, are there not? If not one would though in control of one's magic, be rather poorly educated after graduating from this school, not able to seek further education and employment in the only world I have known of before today.**

**That brings me to my next question; I assume there are lines of work within your world as well, besides teaching what are they? Examples would be very helpful.**

**How long does one attend this school and can you actually use the diploma from Hogwarts in your résumé at all in this world? I get the impression your world is very secluded from this one.**

**How does the acceptance to this school, Hogwarts, actually work? Why did I get one? Do you have a way of knowing of all the people with 'the gift' to perform magic and offer a spot to all of them..?**

**What is the tuition to this school? Assuming it is expensive and one does not have the money, are there scholarships to apply for?**

**How many in Britain have this 'gift'? Are there many others? I am assuming we are in minority compared to those who do not..?**

**Lastly, are there other schools like Hogwarts in Britain? Are there other ways of learning how to control ones magic in case one choose not to attend a school of magic, over distance maybe?**

**For now these are my primary questions. I will be thankful for answers to them before I make my decision. **

**Thank you in advance, yours sincerely, Harry James Potter.**

Satisfied with his letter Harry put it in his pocket with the other ones. He strolled about the area thinking about this new development for quite a while.

This would change his plans no matter what. Although the knowledge of what he could do, apparently intentionally if he practiced somehow, was good to have no matter what he decided. When he finally made his way back it was mid afternoon and he was starving.

Dudley appeared to be out as the house was quiet; that was very good. Vernon was still at work at this hour. Only the hag nearby to annoy him, which she got right down to as soon as he had found some cereal and yoghurt which he took to the table. She appeared in the doorway throwing him the usual glare.

"So now it suits the gentleman to make an appearance?" She sneered at him. "When you are done leeching on our food supply you are to clean up the flowerbeds at the front of the house", she ordered.

Harry gave her an indifferent look before getting back to eating. Then it hit him he should use this opportunity to confront Petunia about anything she might know about his 'gift', while the others were still out.

"Aunt Petunia?"

"_What_? Go on, I don´t have time to stand here listening to your stupid questions all day", she said while stretching her neck to see properly out the window. Apparently she wanted to get in some quality 'spying in the neighbors-time' before she had to start making supper.

"I got a letter today."

"A letter for you? Who would write you?" She mocked absentmindedly.

"It was an acceptance letter to a school, Hogwarts." He said calmly, carefully observing her reaction.

It was if she had frozen in place at his last word. Slowly she turned to face him. "Do you know what that school is?"

"Only what´s in the letter, which is not much, I grasped that I have certain talents though."

She snorted disdainfully, "talents? That´s one way of putting an abnormality."

"You knew. All this time you knew and you did not tell me."

"Of course I knew. How could you be anything else what with what my _lovely _sister and that husband of hers both were?"

"My parents had it to? Does that mean it is genetic?"

"Obviously, yes. Vernon and I hoped we could make you normal but it seems it was all in vain.

"Normal? That is all you ever wanted is it? How… unimaginative. Did you always want to be just ordinary? I doubt that, that is the reason you hated my parents isn´t it? You were jealo-".

Here Harry was cut of abruptly as Petunia slapped him. He brought his hand up to touch his stinging cheek as he looked up at her in slight surprise. The room was silent for a moment.

"That is why you hate me too", Harry stated with a flat tone. He got no answer to that.

Petunia had taken a seat at the table and still looked quite upset. He sat across the table from her, pulling out one of the acceptance letters which he put in the middle of the table.

"It said in the letter that I should send my reply by owl. I do not know what that means; I am wondering if you do? I want to know what else you know of this school. I have written a letter of questions I want to send the school somehow, which I want answered before I accept."

"What makes you think we would let you go to that place to be taught abnormalities by those freaks?"

"If you think about it, it is simple really. Either you have an unwanted nuisance hanging about your home for the entirety of the year or you could send me away to this boarding school far, far away and be rid of me for most of the year." When he put it like that Harry himself felt a lot more tempted accepting a place at this school. "You would almost never have to see me or be reminded of your belated sister."

Petunia looked mad, then thoughtful for a long moment. Then her expression suddenly morphed into determination. She gave a sharp nod. "Alright, I will agree. Do as you like, we´re better of rid of your sort from our home."

Harry blinked owlishly. Well that was easy. "But do not think we will pay one cent for you to go to that…_ school_, you will have to produce any money you may need as best you can on your own", she added as an afterthought.

Well, Harry thought as he rolled his eyes, it was not as if he had ever expected anything else, from such a loving family.

"To send your reply to those… people, just put it in a regular mailbox, like you would when sending mail to normal people. Instead of an address you write the name of the receiver and the location… _Hogwarts_. I do not know how but it reaches them eventually somehow. _They_ must have some kind of department dealing with the transactions between us and _them_."

Huh, well at least that made some sense. They might have written that in the letter though Harry thought to himself.

"Okay. Thank you aunt Petunia, I will do that."

She gave him a short nod before turning to the refrigerator as it was now time to start preparing dinner.

Harry took that as a dismissal and went to the nearest post office to send his letter.

When he came back home the Dursleys had already eaten and Dudley was absorbed in one of his videogames.

Vernon and Petunia were seated at the kitchen table with mugs of tea in front of them. Their conversation halted when Harry came into the room.

They both stared at him for an awkward moment. Going by the even more contemptuous than usual look Vernon was giving him Harry interpreted that he now knew about the latest developments.

"Öhrm, I´m just going to make a sandwich", Harry declared. He made one quickly before retreating to his cupboard; meanwhile he got no reply other than the icy stares.

_Well, if looks could kill. Hmpf, that is not just a little cliché. What an odd day. Though I must say my life looks more interesting all of a sudden. _

He chewed on his sandwich thoughtfully before falling asleep early after a long strange day.


	4. Chapter 4

I´d like to thank everyone who has reviewed so far, thank you for your encouragement :- )

**Chapter four – Some answers, more questions**

Today was a special day for Harry. It was July 31st and his eleventh birthday. Harry looked forward to his birthdays of the simple reason that each one of them brought him closer to eighteen.

He could not remember ever having been celebrated on any of them, receiving any presents worth mentioning (old socks he could acquire on his own if he wanted to, thank you very much) or anything like that but he felt happy today all the same. Besides the fact that he turned eleven today, the next term of school was getting close.

He had yet to receive an answer to his reply-letter of questions to that odd school of witchcraft. This Harry did not bother worrying about; if he got no reply he would simply follow his original plan, go to Stonewall and excel there. However there was no pretending he was not getting a little disappointed as the days went by with no reply; the little he had heard of this other world had awoken his curiosity and he wanted to know more.

As he thought about it he concluded that whether he ever heard from the senders of his invitation to the mystery school again or not, he would find out more about this other world somehow.

It would not be impossible, not when you knew somewhat what you were looking for. Harry´s nature was such that he could never find peace until he knew as much as possible about such a major occurrence as a world parallel but separated from the one he had always known.

Yet, as Harry contemplated all of this while washing some dishes after breakfast the morning of his eleventh birthday, the doorbell rang. "Boy! Answer the door!" Petunia´s screeching voice travelled from upstairs.

Harry dried his hands on a towel before venturing out into the hallway and opening the front door to an out of the ordinary sight. "…Can I help you… Ehm… Sir?" Harry carefully asked the huge hairy man towering over him.

Harry was thrown off for a moment by the strangers odd appearance but quickly assumed he must be suffering from some medical condition, that one that cause some people to never stop growing without treatment perhaps. He decided that the most tactful and polite course of action was to pretend like nothing was out of the ordinary and not ask.

The stranger just stood there staring down at him. Were his eyes getting all… watery?

Then as Harry started getting uncomfortable the stranger finally spoke; "Harry! I can´t say òw wonderful it is to see yeh. You know I `aven´t seen yeh since yeh were just a little baby. I´m sorry, I know you can´t remember me, name´s Hagrid. Rubeus Hagrid, I work at Hogwarts, yeh see. I knew your mum and dad too, wonderful people. You´ve grown a lot since I saw yeh last, you look a lot like yehr dad, but yeh àve yehr mums eyes. Sorry I´m babbling, but I can´t help meself." Here the huge man took out a big handkerchief from his pocket and blew his nose into it.

Harry was slightly mortified at this man's exuberant behavior. Was this man a foreigner? Were there actually British people who behaved like this? He soon got over the shock though and started analyzing the situation. So he had, at least, gotten a reply in some form from the mystery school.

This… person was a bit intimidating, but Harry was not one to be easily discouraged. This person must have the answers to some of his questions.

While Harry processed this the man, Hagrid, had continued to snivel a bit into his sheet-sized handkerchief.

"So… Do you want to come in?" Harry questioned timidly. "Tha´s probably a good idea, yeah", the stranger replied before following Harry into the kitchen. Harry pointed at a chair but then realized that it would never hold the man´s weight.

He instead seated Hagrid onto the old wooden kitchen-couch, which made some alarming sounds of protest. Harry sat down on a chair on the opposite side of the table.

At that moment Petunia decided to make an appearance. She stood frozen in the doorway staring at the giant on her old heirloom-couch. "Who are you?" she asked sharply.

"Good day, me name is Hagrid, I´m from Hogwarts. I have come here to answer some questions about our world for árry, as you don´t seem to have managed to", the stranger looked disapprovingly and slightly curious at Harry´s aunt.

"Fine, be quick", Petunia said while glaring daggers at both the giant and her nephew, before disappearing from the room.

The stranger seemed unfazed by this cold welcome and once more turned to Harry. "Strange people, these muggles. So Harry, Professor McGonagall got yehr letter with questions. I dunno what was in it really but it seemed to shock her for a bit, I saw her get it at breakfast a few days ago", Hagrid said looking amused. "I àve her reply with me for yeh", he said pulling out an envelope from an inner pocket after digging around a bit.

He handed Harry the envelope, which he carefully opened. Inside was once again thick parchment, though this time the writing was in black ink.

**Mr. Potter,**

**You do have a lot of question. I will venture to answer them in this letter to the best of my ability.**

**First about "sending us your owl", yes we do mean for you to literally send your reply by owl. I realize this might not be a possibility for muggleborns and others who have previously stood outside the magical community, although owls are the regular way of communicating within our society. **

**The accepting letters sent to muggleborn witches or wizards include an extra letter explaining the details of how to get in contact with our world and such practicalities. As you are not a muggleborn and your relatives are reportedly supposed to know about our world beforehand, we assumed that you would not need such a letter. **

**This is apparently not the case, as you seem much uninformed of everything involving our world. **

**To remedy this, besides the answers I give you in this letter, the carrier of this letter will try to answer any further questions you might have and possibly take you getting your school supplies in case your relatives would not rather accompany you. **

**You might find it presumptuous of me to state that you are actually going to get your school supplies as you have yet to actually accept your spot as a student at Hogwarts. **

**I however must assume that you will. I do not believe you realize what an advantage it is to get accepted to a prestigious school such as Hogwarts. **

**It is the only one of its kind in Britain and I assure you that our education is of great quality. For a witch or wizard not to attend a school of witchcraft would be a tremendous waste of a gift. **

**I must urge you to consider how unusual and valuable the gift of magic is and what a terrible waste it would be not to learn how to use it. With that said I will continue answering your questions.**

**Our curriculum include a number of subjects, the first few years on a basic level and then you continue a few subjects of your own choice, which you chose to continue onto a higher advanced level through your last years at Hogwarts. **

**A selection of some of the subjects available are transfiguration (which I teach), defense against the dark arts, potions, herbology, astronomy and history of magic. I will not go deeper into what these subjects include now as that would make one very long letter.**

**I can however assure you that these subjects are very much real and bring more than enough knowledge to live and work as an adult within our society. **

**The education received at Hogwarts stretches over seven school years; our pupils begin their first year at eleven and graduate at seventeen after having completed their seventh year.**

**As for the muggle-world, no, you cannot use grades and diplomas from a magical school there. This normally poses no problem as graduates from magical schools almost always continue on living and working within the magical society throughout their lives even if we all venture out into the muggle world from time to time. **

**Hogwarts students are as mentioned accepted at age eleven at which age we assume that our students have already acquired the basic skills in English and mathematics they are going to need. As for mathematics we have a somewhat related subject at Hogwarts called arithmancy for those interested, which is similar to mathematics in practice. **

**As I have already hinted at the magical community is in fact an entire working community with education and naturally also many different lines of work. Much like in the muggle community there are a countless number of possible careers which are more or less common. We have a ministry of magic which rules our society and makes sure laws and such are obeyed. Within the ministry´s many departments there are many employees. **

**Some people own private businesses specializing in different areas (shops, banks etc.). Many young wizards and witches these days also often work within the magical community of other countries and travel a lot.**

**As to who gets a letter of invitation to Hogwarts, all citizens of Britain with the gift of magic do at the age of eleven. We are a minority; the gift of magic is not very common. The offspring of one or two magical parents usually also has magic.**

**However witches or wizards are sometimes also born to people without magic; muggles, these are the children called muggleborns. **

**The name of a magical child living in Britain appear on a list automatically a few months before the upcoming school year the year said child turns eleven. To all of these children a letter of invitation is sent out. **

**As this is an uncommon gift it is our policy that everyone in the possession of it should be able to attend Hogwarts no matter what their financial situation is. Therefore Hogwarts has a special fund available to those who need it, which supplies them with enough money to attend school and get the supplies they need. **

**Why you are interested in this I do not comprehend though, as your inheritance more than covers your tuition and anything you might need through your schooling. Also from what I gather your relatives are not financially unfortunate. I am assuming your question is based on pure interest on how our world is organized. **

**As I hope you realize from my answers, our world is not really much different from the muggle one in many ways. As for learning to handle magic on a distance, this is hardly an option. Magic is advanced and practical training is necessary in order to develop sufficient skills within the practice of it.**

**I hope that my answers have covered most of your questions. I wish you well and hope to see you at Hogwarts September 1****st****.**

_**Professor Minerva McGonagall, head of Gryffindor house, Hogwarts**_

Harry reread the letter once while processing all the new information. Most of it sounded good. He did not like the fact that the diplomas from this school would not be of any use in the "muggle world" as they called it though.

That was most impractical as Harry could not be sure where he would like to live and work and wanted to keep his options open. He realized on the other hand that while magic apparently could not really be taught on a distance, most of the subjects taught within his regular school could.

He was getting progressively more interested in this secret other society. He decided he would find a way to teach himself sufficiently whatever this magical school education lacked in the form of social science and such subjects.

He made up his mind in a matter of minutes after reading the letter through to attend Hogwarts, as he realized that he would always wonder about what it would be like at this school if he did not at least try it out.

The letter left a few question marks though. He once again became aware of the huge man sitting opposite to him looking at him with a strange expression on his face. He looked vaguely surprised and a bit cautious.

Hagrid did not know what to make out of this boy. He did not seem to be what he expected. He would have expected someone somewhat like James; lively, almost always close to laughter, curious and busy with whatever prank he had going on, or maybe even like Lily; full of life, with more seriousness, more thoughtfulness than James but also always relaxed in her natural happiness and obvious trust in people.

This boy despite his physical resemblance to his parents seemed nothing like either of them. This saddened Hagrid on some level, James and Lily had been people dear to him and he felt it a shame that Harry appeared not to share much of their personalities. Of course Harry had never even had a chance to know them.

Hagrid had noticed the difference in Harrys the moment he opened the door somewhat but it was getting clearer the longer he stayed in close proximity of the boy. He had seemed reclusive, much more withdrawn than his parents ever were. Not shy really, more… wary. He appeared less open with his emotions, less welcoming and warm than his parents would have been, even to a stranger.

Harry's mother had been serious from time to time but she had also rarely been far away from smiling. Harry had not expressed anything close to a smile as of yet. He did not look hostile or anything, he just looked very solemn.

Right now the boy had been lost in thought for several minutes. Ever since he opened the letter he had looked to be thinking about something with all of his focus. Finally his face adopted an expression of resolve.

"I will attend Hogwarts. At least to try it out", Harry said with a tone of finality.

"Well of course! As if the son of James and Lily Potter wouldn´t go to Hogwarts! Naturally yeh´re going to Hogwarts…" Hagrid said surprised, laughing lightly.

Harry did not move a muscle in his face to indicate any amusement and Hagrid´s laugh soon died from his lips. The boy could not have seriously contemplated not going to Hogwarts, could he?

"I have some questions concerning the content of this letter, Sir. It says something about my supposed inheritance. What is that about? I have never heard anything about that before", Harry stated looking Hagrid straight in the eye.

Hagrid blinked. "Well, yeah. Your father was a Potter, the last of an old family. He inherited a fair bit when yehr grandparents died. This money you in turn inherited when James and Lily…" Hagrid swallowed looking teary-eyed again.

"Oh. Where is this money kept then? There is no way the Dursley can reach it is there?" Harry questioned thoughtfully.

"Ehrm… It is in the wizarding bank Gringotts, so no… The muggles probably can´t reach it", Hagrid looked a bit confused and gave Harry a peculiar look.

"I can, though?"

"Yes, I have the key to yehr vault with me", Hagrid dug around inside several pockets before extracting a small key which he handed Harry.

Harry examined the golden little key. Could this tiny thing really go to a vault? Well, perhaps, few things were ever what they seemed he mused.

"Thank you. It said in the letter also that you would take me somewhere I could look for my school supplies..?" Harry said looking up at the giants face once more.

"Yeah, absolutely, unless your relatives would rather take you themselves that is".

Harry snorted. "No, I am quite certain that they have no such wish".

"… Alright then, we can go whenever you are ready, it is good if we get there as early as possible". Harry nodded and went to put on his worn jacket and some shoes. "Are you coming?" He called back to Hagrid. "Shouldn´t yeh… I dunno tell yehr aunt where yehr going or something?" Hagrid questioned looking taken aback.

"Nah, she went out. Don´t worry about it".

"Do yeh áve any other questions before we go then?" Hagrid asked kindly.

Harry thought for a moment. "Do you teach something at Hogwarts? You told me you worked there", Harry recalled suddenly.

"Ehm, no. I am the gamekeeper and the keeper of keys", Hagrid said proudly.

"Oh, alright. My parents went to Hogwarts? Did you work there then as well, that´s how you knew them?"

"Yeah, actually I did. I went there as a student as well a long time ago. Well for a while at least. Wonderful school, it has been my home ever since I was your age". Hagrid looked dreamingly into distance for a moment. "Yeh´ll áve the greatest headmaster there ás ever been too, Albus Dumbledore", at this point Hagrid looked with positively adoring eyes off into space as if he was looking at the love of his life or his first-born child or something along those lines.

_Wow, is he in love with that headmaster-guy or something? What does he mean he "went to Hogwarts for a while"? Hmm, did he get expelled or something? Whatever, it would be impolite to ask and it´s none of my business anyway. _

Harry snapped his fingers in front of Hagrid's, well stomach actually as that was as far up as he could reach, but the huge man seemed to hear it and shake out of his thoughts whatever they were.

"So is there anything else I should know before we go into this… world?" Harry asked.

"Naah, we´ll take it as it comes up I guess. Yeh´re gonna love it. I can´t believe yeh haven´t seen Diagon alley yet! We should try an´ keep a low profile though. If they figure out just who yeh are yeh´re not getting a peaceful minute without people wanting yehr autograph and stuff. We have a lot to get done today so it´s best if we don´t get held back by people wanting to shake yehr hand", Hagrid grinned and winked at him.

Harry stared at him. "What are you talking about?" He said warily. "Why would anyone ever want my autograph?"

Hagrid looked dumbfounded for a second. "Well, because yeh´re famous of course. The boy-who-lived and all that".

"…? The boy-who-what?"

"…Who lived! You survived. I know yeh haven´t lived in our world since but you must realize how amazing it is that you survived! Yeh´re a celebrity among our kind still because of that."

"What, because I survived a car crash?" Harry looked very doubtful.

"Car crash? Yeh´ve never been in any car crash, what are yeh…" Hagrid looked as if realization struck him at that moment. "Yeh don´t know? The muggles, they lied didn´t they? They never told yeh what happened…

Harry felt a sense of foreboding creep up on him. "My parents didn´t die in a car crash, right? What happened then?"

Hagrid looked utterly miserable.

"I really should not be the one to tell you this story", Hagrid said looking cornered. "I assumed they had told you, damn muggles".

"What is it they should have told me exactly?" Harry asked slowly looking very cautious.

We all know what it is Harry should have been told and Hagrid told him the whole story.

Harry who had sunk down on one of the lower steps of the stairs was staring straight ahead with a blank expression. Hagrid was looking down at him worriedly.

"This man, Voldemort, murdered them. Why exactly?"

"Probably because they wouldn´t join him or something like that. Because he could, I suppose", Hagrid replied sadly after twitching a bit at the mentioning of you-know-who´s name.

"What kind of name is Lord Voldemort anyway?" Harry muttered. "Is that like his alter-ego or something? That can´t be his real name", Harry mused.

"Merlin, would you stop saying that name!"

"Why? What difference does it make? He´s dead anyway, isn´t he?"

"As I said, we don´t really know what or where he is".

"… Shouldn´t someone track him down if he isn´t dead?"

"It´s not that simple. He was tremendously powerful, no one could match him".

"Apparently a baby could", Harry exclaimed with his voice full of irony.

"That´s why you are famous, no one knows what you had that broke him", Hagrid almost whispered.

"Well am I not special", Harry replied in a mocking tone, "How come they exiled me to this… place if the world love me so much?" He asked bitterly.

"Professor Dumbledore assured us it was for the best that you stayed here. It was for your own good, you were safe here".

"The headmaster? What does he have to do with anything?" Harry asked surprised. "Shouldn´t it be some department of the ministry dealing with the custody of children, or something like that..?

Or was aunt Petunia my… Godmother?" He asked with distaste. If that was the case he really had to question whether his parents had been very nice people, with that kind of taste.

"No. No, but yehr godfather wasn´t available… at the time and yehr aunt was the closest relative yeh had still alive".

"I had a godfather? What happened to him then?" Harry saw Hagrid looking very flustered suddenly.

"That´s not important right now. We should really get going, look at the time", Hagrid said trying to change the subject in perhaps the clumsiest manor Harry had ever witnessed. Hagrid took off through the front door leaving Harry no other choice but to hurry after.


	5. Chapter 5

Again, thank you to reviewers; all reviews are most appreciated and motivating, so thanks :-D

Also if anyone has any ideas on how they want things to develop in my story you´re welcome to make suggestions, most things are yet undecided.

Note that text in small print are Harry´s thoughts.

**Chapter five – The brick wall**

They travelled by train to London. Harry had never been to London before. The Dursleys had gone there a few times to shop or to have some family-time visiting Big Ben and such attractions. They had, naturally, always left Harry with their neighbor, old Mrs. Figg when they did this.

Harry liked the city so far. It showed in a more concrete way how big the world was and he found that encouraging.

Harry couldn´t help feeling somewhat astounded by how lost Hagrid seemed in the muggle world. He seemed confused by the most ordinary things and unfamiliar with simple procedures such as purchasing bus tickets. "You don´t visit the muggle world much do you?"

"Naah, people tend to stare a lot at me and there´s not much fun here anyway, from what I can see. So strange…" Hagrid trailed off staring at some random muggles walking by.

"Huh", was all the response Harry could muster up.

_Wow, some people from this magical community must really be cut off from the muggle world. How strange, why would they want to shut themselves in like that? Couldn´t they, I don´t know, combine the best of both worlds or something? Oh damn, my thoughts are going cliché again. _

_Hmm, where is he taking me? Can you really shop for the weird stuff on this list in London? How peculiar. _

_My, my, he couldn´t even handle paying with regular money. They must have some other type of money in the magical world… _

"Excuse me Mr. Hagrid but out of curiosity, what type of money does one use within the magical community?" Harry asked the giant at his side.

Hagrid jumped a bit as he had not been prepared for Harry to speak; they had been quiet for a while and Hagrid had busied himself with resuming his gawking at the muggles passing by.

"Well yeah, we use round balls of metal; golden Galleons, silver Sickles and bronze Knuts. Much easier to deal with than the strange paper money yeh use ´round here… Anyway there are 29 Knuts on a Sickle and 17 Sickles in a Galleon, it´s simple enough. From what I gather one Galleon is worth about 5 of those… What do you call them? Ponds?" Hagrid explained.

"Pounds", Harry corrected absentmindedly. He repeated the value of the Galleons, Sickles and Knuts in his heads a few times in order to memorize it properly.

He soon looked up at Hagrid again as he realized they had stopped and that Hagrid once again was giving him odd looks.

"Why have we stopped..?" Harry asked carefully.

"We´re there. That´s the leaking cauldron over there", Hagrid replied pointing at an insignificant looking pub squashed in-between two much more interesting looking stores.

"Oh… Why are we going to a pub?" Harry asked uneasily. Had it perhaps been a bad idea to go with a stranger to a big city he was unfamiliar with? When his head put it like that Harry couldn´t deny it sounded like an infinitely irresponsible and stupid thing to do. Well, too late now, he´d just have to deal with whatever came up whenever it did. Meanwhile he sent Hagrid a suspicious glare.

Hagrid in the meantime looked very inquisitive. Why was this weird kid glaring at him all of a sudden? Hagrid could not for the life of him understand what the boy was thinking; looking so lost in thought all the time.

"Um, yeah, that is the connection between muggle London and Diagon alley; we go through the leaky cauldron and into the backyard of it. There we pass a brick wall which only our kind can get passed and we´re in Diagon alley which is a long street where our kind have our different shops, our bank and so on", Hagrid explained in a rush in an effort to get the death glare off of his person.

"Oh, well shouldn´t we go then?" Harry stated.

"Well yeah, of course… Come on", the giant mumbled starting towards the leaky cauldron.

They got inside soon enough and immediately the bartender greeted Hagrid heartily. "Ah, Hagrid, nice to see you, the same as usual I presume?"

"Not today Tom, I´m here on Hogwarts-business yeh see", Hagrid replied proudly puffing out his chest.

"Oh? Whatever might that be? Ah, I see you have a young man with you…" Here the man trailed of staring at Harry. Harry stared back.

"Is that? No that can´t be… Is it? Harry Potter?" the bartender named Tom breathed looking amazed. Harry raised an eyebrow at the man's undignified performance and indiscreet gawking.

"Yeees, that is my name", Harry stated slowly, unimpressed. God, he hoped everyone else in this magical community were not going to act like this around him because of that incident with the Voldemort guy, what, a decade ago? It had the potential to become very annoying. Let´s face it; people were annoying enough as it was, while ignoring him.

Putting on this stupid looking staring act would make them unbearable. Hopefully this man was just particularly inconsiderate and dense, being so overly obvious in his gawking.

By now however every single one of the pubs occupants had turned around to ogle at them at the sound of the name Harry Potter. _I guess not. Sigh._

Several people jumped to their feet and approached him to shake his hand, the bartender being first in line as he had the advantage of already having been on his feet.

"Welcome back, Mr. Potter, welcome back." The bartender actually looked to be a bit teary-eyed.

Harry didn´t know what to say. What was he supposed to say to that? 'Welcome _back_', he couldn´t remember having been in this world in the first place. "…Thanks, I guess." Harry said politely but rather unenthusiastically.

All the people shaking his hand had this look on their faces as if Christmas had come early. "Welcome back, Mr. Potter", another man vigorously shaking his hand exclaimed with a huge grin painting his ugly features as Harry resurfaced from his thoughts.

"Um… Thanks?" Harry said uncertainly for what felt like the umpteenth time. Wow, this was uncomfortable. Wait, didn´t he recognize this guy? It was that nutcase from the supermarket!

This man he recalled he had crossed paths with once in the supermarket when he had been shopping with aunt Petunia last year. _Huh, so that´s why he bowed to me. Still seems a dim-witted thing to do though. I think Petunia thought he might be a pedophile or something, the way she reacted seeing him near me and Dudley. Oh, and that´s why he wore that silly cape, must be some fashion-statement in this place._

Now a woman was shaking his hand. "Doris Crockford, Mr. Potter, I can´t believe I finally get to meet you- It is such an honor. I have always wanted to shake your hand…" She said sounding overly enthusiastic.

"How is that?" Harry asked critically.

"Oh, well… After what you did for our world!" She said looking a bit uncomfortable.

Harry looked at her stone-faced. "Whatever happened almost a decade ago, I was a small child at the time. Therefore I must assume that I did not intentionally do anything. I must tell you that I resent being hailed for witnessing the murder of my parents. I believe you simply find it exciting to meet what you view as a celebrity. I´m sorry if that came out rude, that was not my intention, I merely wanted to make my opinions in the matter clear", Harry said carefully looking her squarely in the eye.

The woman was blushing and looked lost for words. Everyone else who a minute ago looked exceedingly cheerful all looked dumbfounded by Harry´s words.

Harry realized that he might have been a bit harsh. But he was really uncomfortable being put in the spotlight like that. It really was inconsiderate of these people not to understand as much; circling him like some kind of publicly displayed tourist-attraction.

"Uhm, we should be going", Hagrid said apologetically, breaking through a moment of deafening silence. They made their way towards what looked like the backdoor. Harry noticed a man wearing a big turban looking at him speculatively as they passed him. Was it his imagination or did the turban clad man consciously change his expression when he noticed Harry looking? Whatever, why were all these people so damn odd? Not that Harry would claim to be normal himself or anything but he at least tried being polite enough to keep his distance to strangers and mind his own business.

They were in front of the brick wall Hagrid had told him about and Hagrid pulled out an… umbrella? Harry looked up at the sky questioningly. Was it going to rain? No, it did not look like it… Harry lowered his gaze to ask Hagrid what he was doing.

The solid brick wall had somehow moved and a long crowded street stretched before them. Harry forgot his question in favor of looking with fascination at the many shops and unusually attired people. Harry´s curious nature was urging him to go investigate everything in his new surroundings immediately.

Hagrid watched Harrys awed face as he with interested eyes scanned what he could see of Diagon alley. Finally, a normal reaction from this kid, Hagrid thought somewhat relieved.

"I understand that yeh´re curious to look at all the stores but we should visit the bank, Gringotts first thing."

Harry nodded and Hagrid led the way to the bank, all the way Harry turning his head in every direction trying to catch sight of as much as possible of his new surroundings.

Harry couldn´t believe some of the things they sold here. The stores surrounding them were specialized in everything from flying brooms to potions ingredients such as beetle eyes and dragon liver… Wait, _dragon _liver!?

"Excuse me, Hagrid… Are there actually dragons?" Harry asked doubtfully.

Hagrid lit up at this question. "Are there dragons? Well Merlin's beard of course there are! I can´t believe ów little you know of our world." Hagrid said shaking his head but looking thrilled all the same. Tact apparently was not a talent the half-giant possessed. "Of course they live pretty secluded from us, in faraway places." Hagrid continued, looking very regretful all of a sudden. "I always wanted a dragon, beautiful creatures…" he trailed of looking dreamily out in space.

"Well, herrm, aren´t they a bit… big to have as pets? All I know of them are from muggle children´s stories but in them they are usually rather… violent…" Harry questioned.

"They are just misunderstood." Hagrid said longingly.

Harry decided there was probably no point in prolonging this conversation and consequently did not say anything more on the subject.

What fascinated him though, was that apparently the reality of this new world appeared to include a lot of additions known in the muggle world as myths. He should have figured; it is a common fact that most myths are based on something real somehow, however obscurely. People simply aren´t all that imaginative, he concluded to himself.

It was funny really. All the things children dreamed and fantasized about was unfolding before his eyes presenting itself as reality. It was in truth amazing and he was content for a moment that he was getting this chance to explore and discover another world.

Hagrid looked down at the boy walking at his side as they had been quiet for a few minutes now. Merlin, was the boy actually smiling? He was, it was just a small rise of the corners of his lips, but it was indisputably a smile.

Hagrid felt as if he was witnessing something special finally seeing some sign of happiness from the little oddball at his side. He couldn´t help but grin down at him.

"Here we are, Gringotts wizarding bank", he stated making a wide armed gesture towards the building right in front of them. Harry snapped out of his musings and looked up at Gringotts. It was an impressive building, snow white with bronze gates. There was a creature in a uniform standing next to said gate. Harry looked at the creature and then on Hagrid questioningly.

"Aah, yes that is a goblin. You do not want to get on the wrong foot with one of them." Was all Hagrid offered in the lines of an explanation.

Harry tried not to stare at the clever looking creature as they walked passed it on their way into the bank.

Upon the inner doors was a poem in scripted, threatening potential thieves. Harry had the distinct feeling that yes, it was best not to get on the wrong foot with these creatures. He liked the threatening poem though; effective and entertaining all the same. A very nice way to present the rules of the game.

They were now in a beautiful hall of marble. Harry couldn´t help but admire the stunning architecture of this place.

The hall was filled with goblins, here and there weighing coins on scales or writing in protocols and some handling other customers.

They approached a goblin at the counter. "Good morning, we are here to make a withdrawal from Harry Potter´s vault."

The goblin looked them over appraisingly. "Do you have the key?"

Harry immediately extracted said key from his pocket and handed it to the goblin. The goblin looked the key over for a moment before nodding. "Everything appears to be in order."

Hagrid who had been digging around his many pockets throughout the exchange, pulled out a wrinkled letter from one of his inner pocket. "I also have this, from Professor Dumbledore", Hagrid said looking important, "it´s about you know what in vault 713."

Harry inwardly snorted. Hagrid looked extremely proud having been trusted with whatever mission from the headmaster.

It was obvious he idolized the man immensely. Hagrid seemed nice and all, but unless this headmaster was insane there was no way he would trust anything actually important and secret to Hagrid. Harry had met some dense people in his days, but this was probably one of the most indiscreet ones he had ever encountered.

This Dumbledore probably let the giant man believe that whatever mission he was dealt held greater importance than it did in order to let this kind but honestly obviously rather slow person feel important. A nice gesture, no doubt, perhaps the headmaster had a soft spot for those who put him on a pedestal and flattered his ego.

Apparently he had missed some exchange between Hagrid and the goblin because they were now following another goblin through another set of doors into a dark small stone path with a railway. The goblin whistled and a wagon appeared. "So, I take it the vaults are underground?" Harry asked thoughtfully as they got into said wagon.

"Yeah tha´s right, Merlin I wish there was some other way of getting down there, I hate riding in this thing…" Hagrid trailed of looking unhappy.

The wagon set of at a high speed through a maze of turns and crossing paths and they went deep down underground before stopping before a door. Harry glanced at Hagrid who looked very nauseous.

These tunnels were remarkable; the goblins were obviously very intelligent and skilled. Meanwhile the goblin leading them opened the door for them.

Inside were big piles of golden, silver and bronze wizarding money. Harry tried calculating in his head how much this might be in pounds. It was a lot, that much was certain. He had money. Well this was a new development. This was wonderful; money meant an additional amount of independence.

Hagrid watched Harry as they made their way into the Potter vault. First his face was completely blank, and then suddenly a big smile broke out on his face. The boy looked so different smiling. "It´s all yours", Hagrid said gently.

Harry simply nodded while picking up a coin of each type to examine closer. Hagrid handed him a small bag with a zipper on it from one of his many pockets to fill with enough money for the upcoming school year. Soon they were on their way deeper down still, towards the mysterious vault 713.

The door they stood before this time had no keyhole. The goblin stepped forward stroking a finger along the door, which melted away at the touch. _Well that was cool._ "If someone not a goblin working at Gringotts tries this they would be sucked in and locked inside", the goblin apparently found the need to tell them. _Very… drastic, but most certainly effective. Hmm, what´s in there? Looks empty from here… No, wait there´s something… a little dirty package. I do wonder what´s in there… Oh well, that´s really none of my business._

Once Hagrid had pocketed the secret package they got back into the wagon and soon they emerged out of Gringotts out into the sunlight once more, much to Hagrid´s obvious relief. Harry looked around. Where to begin his exploring?

"Yeh might´as well start with buying yehr ógwarts uniform right away", Hagrid said nodding to a store nearby named Madame Malkin´s Robes For All Occasions.

Clothes? Well perhaps not the most exiting store in view, however Harry had never as far as he remembered gotten any new clothes, so getting new clothing originally meant for him, even if it was just a school uniform, would be a first for him.

"Hey Árry, would yeh mind if I snuck away for a bit to get a recuperator back at the Leaky Cauldron? I really hate those damn wagons at Gringotts", Hagrid looked nauseous again at the mere thought of them.

"No that is alright. I´ll go get the clothes I need in the meantime and we´ll meet up later then", Harry concluded, approaching the store he had been pointed towards.

He was actually a little relieved to get away from the huge man for a while. Not that Hagrid hadn´t been very nice to him, but Harry was used to being on his own most of the time. Having someone tailing after him or having to tail after someone else an entire day wasn´t something he enjoyed.

Inside the store he was greeted by a smiling Madame Malkin dressed from head to toe in purple.

"Hello Madame, I need to get my school uniform for Hogwarts…" He started while pulling out the list of school supplies from his jacket inner pocket.

"Oh yes, I see dear, I know what´s on the list. If you would step up on the stool over there I´ll just get the supplies I need", the witch told him with a kind smile.

Harry did as instructed, waiting on the stool. There were no other customers in the store at the moment and so Madam Malkin immediately pulled a long robe over his head and started sizing it to the appropriate length. _Why do they wear dresses? Must be awfully impractical when moving around… But then again I presume that they don´t have gym-class, it works I suppose if you are just going to walk between classes… Must be some type of tradition…_

"Just a moment dear", Madame Malkin told him, breaking through his thoughts.

She went to greet some new customers who had arrived at the counter. He couldn´t hear what they were saying from across the room so he took to looking them over. They appeared to be a wizarding family; they were already wearing robes in expensive-looking fabric.

It was a rather snobbish looking but beautiful woman, a man, presumably her husband with very light blonde hair and their son who looked about Harry´s age.

The parents left the store after a quick exchange with Madame Malkin and the boy was directed towards a stool near Harry.

"… because I already have the supplies out for this young man. I´ll be right back, I´m just going to get my assistant now that there are two of you", she said before walking off into another room.

"Hello", Harry said politely.

"Hullo. You are also going to Hogwarts I hear", the boy continued.

"Yes. I take it you are also starting your first year?" Harry questioned.

The boy nodded "Yes. My name is Draco Malfoy", the boy said looking proud of the fact. "What´s your name?" he continued.

Harry hesitated. This boy was obviously raised in the wizarding community. He must have heard of the Voldemort incident.

Was he going to gawk stupidly at him like the people at the pub had if he was told this was Harry Potter? On the other hand he couldn´t very well lie, that would be exposed as soon as they got to Hogwarts and that would be awkward.

Apparently Harry had spent a moment to long contemplating his options because Draco Malfoy was looking at him suspiciously.

"Is there a reason you don´t want to tell me your name?" he asked slowly.

"Actually yes", Harry stated in an even tone.

"Well now I´m curious", Malfoy said after a moment. "What is it that you want to hide? Are you ashamed of something?" Malfoy looked him over appraisingly. "I´ve never seen you before so I assume you are either a halfblood or a mudblood. I understand one would be ashamed of having such blood relations, I certainly would, but I´m going to find out who you are at Hogwarts anyway you know", Malfoy said in an arrogant tone of voice.

Harry snorted.

"You come from a rich family right? That´s no reason to be so pretentious you know, it is rather rude not to mention unflattering for you. No I´m not ashamed of my name, I don´t understand why anyone would be as you don´t choose your name and no one can help what ring earlier generations have given it through their actions. A name is nothing, as it is the most random thing. It´s insignificant, so no I would never be ashamed of my name no matter what is was as it hardly matters." Harry stated in a bored tone of voice.

The blonde looked very surprised. "… That is… a most interesting opinion. You still haven't answered my question though."

"Well, before I can I have to ask you what a mudblood and a halfblood are."

"The fact that you do not know that excludes the possibility that you are a pureblood, or at least that you were raised as one", Malfoy stated. "A pureblood is someone who´s linage can be traced several generations back on both sides to include only witches and wizards. A halfblood is the child of one parent who is a pureblood and one who is not. A _mudblood_ is the magical child of two nonmagical parents, muggles." He explained.

"Oh. Rather racist names for these different types of lineages", Harry stated interestedly "I suppose this means discrimination is a common phenomena in this world as well? Well, people will always be people I suppose", Harry sighed exasperated. "They´re much the same no matter what their living situation is, obviously. Quite hopeless creatures, aren´t we?" Harry mused staring off into nothingness.

Malfoy stared at him with a face that clearly conveyed something along the lines of 'what the hell are you on about, I don´t understand half of what you just said'.

At this moment Madame Malkin reappeared followed by her assistant.

"Sorry about the wait boys." With that the fitting of robes resumed. Meanwhile Harry looked a mix of bored and irritated while Malfoy wore an expression of light confusion and thoughtfulness. Harry´s clothing was done first and Madame Malkin wrapped them up in a package.

In the meantime Malfoy addressed him again. "You must be one of the weirdest people I have ever met", he said looking at him curiously.

"Is that so?" Harry asked uninterestedly. "You are unfortunately not the most narrow-minded or arrogant person I have ever met."

"I can´t believe I´m still talking to you when all you´ve done so far is insult me and refuse to tell me your name…" Malfoy said looking dubious and shaking his head lightly.

"I´m not really insulting you as such. I have not said anything with the purpose of offending you, I´m merely stating what I see." Harry replied curtly.

"…Atleast you have no doubt not been boring talking to", Malfoy finally said looking a mix of annoyed and uncertain.

"Talking to you has also been most enlightening", Harry said nodding curtly towards the blonde. "Goodbye", Harry took the package containg his new school uniforms and walked out of the store.

Now where should he go to next? Oh, the bookstore! He was really looking forward to investigating what literature there was on magic. Shouldn´t Hagrid have been back by now?

"Harry! There yeh are", a loud voice came from behind, making him leap a bit in shock.

"Hagrid, hello…" Harry replied while turning around. Hagrid looked a lot happier with a slightly red nose and a big ice cream in each hand.

He smelled slightly of 'recuperator' as well, making Harry wonder just how many of them he´d had. They ate the ice cream while walking down the street, providing Harry with an opportunity to look closer at all the different shops window displays.

"Thank you for the ice cream."

"Oh, that aint nothing yeh need teh thank for! I just remembered I haven´t even congratulated yeh on it being yehr birthday today. Happy birthday Harry! Aint every day a lad turns eleven", Hagrid said sincerely shooting Harry a kind smile.

"Thank you", Harry replied, sending Hagrid a small smile back. He didn´t know what more to say. Was it pathetic that this was the first person to actually congratulate him on his birthday since Mrs. Figg that once, three years ago? Probably a bit. Never mind that, Harry was touched this near stranger cared to acknowledge his birthday and he sensed himself warming up slightly more to this unsophisticated, blunt but also seemingly kindhearted person.

After eating their ice cream they continued through several different stores buying various minor supplies such as parchment, some quills, the listed potions ingredients, a cauldron, a trunk and so on.

They made a, in Hagrid´s opinion, entirely too long stop at the bookstore, where Harry aside from the listed books needed for classes also carefully picked out a great number of other books which awoke his interest and some which looked quite dull but nevertheless useful.

He made sure to find, besides those containing information on magic also those dealing in different ways with the culture of the wizarding world as he wanted a better idea of what he was getting himself into before arriving at Hogwarts.

"Hagrid?" Harry suddenly murmured as they were on their way to a guy named Ollivander, who apparently was a wand maker.

"Yeah?"

"A lot of people with magic; witches and wizards… They don´t like muggles much do they? I talked to a boy my age at Madam Malkins and he seemed to have been taught a view of nonmagical people being… lower or less than magical, because he expressed contempt of magical people who are related to nonmagical… It sounded almost like he considered them lower beings. What I want to know is how common this attitude is in your world? Is it the common opinion?" Harry asked carefully watching Hagrids face while waiting for an answer.

"Yeh must áve been talking to the kid of some old pureblood family. Those prejudices are most… common among the old wizarding families, they think they´re better than the rest of us because of their family name. Don´t worry, árry, most don´t agree with them and have nothing against muggles really…" Hagrid told him looking grim.

"'Most common' among the old families? Meaning they do exist among others as well?" Harry enquired with narrowed eyes.

"Well, most don´t want muggles no harm or anything, but they are different from us… and though most people wouldn´t really say nothing about it…"

"… They still believe muggles are less than them on some level because they don´t have magic", Harry finished for him. "And they dislike them mostly because they don´t know any muggles or much about their world. Anything unfamiliar and estranged makes people… distrustful." Harry mumbled, mostly to himself.

"The worlds are so separated why exactly? Seems awfully stupid."

Hagrid gaped. "It´s always been like that. It wouldn´t work if… If the muggles knew about us we´d never get a peaceful moment."

"Is that so?" Harry looked skeptical, but now they had arrived at Ollivanders shop.

They entered the rather shabby looking store and a tinkling bell went off somewhere in the back of the shop.

Along the walls thousands of narrow boxes (assumably containing wands) were piled. The place had a rather creepy feel to it. It appeared to be empty aside from Harry and Hagrid. Then a quiet voice suddenly startled them; "Good afternoon". The source of these words was an old man with big pale eyes, who had snuck up on them without making a sound.

_Well that was unnecessary. Way to make your customers feel right at home…_

"Good afternoon, sir", Harry answered warily.

"Ah yes, yes. I thought I´d be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." The old man stated.

Harry was seriously disconcerted by the fact that this man knew who he was without even having heard his name. How was that possible? The man who was supposedly Ollivander himself continued; "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."

"How do you know my name? I realize you´ve met my mother, but still, you instantly recognized me because of that, never having met me before?" Harry questioned suspiciously.

_Hmm, he said I have my mother´s eyes, as did Hagrid before… That is probably correct then… That´s nice…_

"Well… I sold your father his wand as well and you look a great deal like him I must say. Also you´re escorted by Rubeus here", the creepy man stated nodding towards Hagrid. "Then we have the famous scar of course…"

Ollivander moved way into Harrys personal zone and lightly touched his scar. "I´m sorry to say I sold the wand that made this as well…"

Harry took a step backwards and interrupted the creepy mans ramblings; "That´s quite alright, but seriously, have every wizard and witch in Britain got their wands from you? Aren´t there any rivaling wand makers? Do you have monopoly on making them..?"

Ollivander looked surprised. "No, not at all. However my wands are widely recognized to be of the finest quality", he said sounding important.

…_Besides the fact that you probably own the only store specializing in wands situated near Diagon Alley and people are lazy._ Harry finished for him inside his head.

Meanwhile the chatty old man continued his ramblings. "Ah, Rubeus Hagrid! It is nice to see you again… Oak, sixteen inches, rather-"

Here Harry had gotten tired of Ollivanders babbling and so interrupted him. "Excuse me, Mr. Ollivander, but could we perhaps attempt to start looking for my wand sooner rather than later? I need to catch a train home."

"Oh." Ollivander looked rather miffed. "Very well", he said pursing his lips while measuring Harry´s arm.

Half an hour later Harry had tried a great number of wands without finding his match and had finally begun tiring of the activity.

"What if there is no one which matches me in here..? Are there other places with bigger selections one can perhaps order from?" He asked.

Ollivander looked utterly insulted by this. "No, no, there is a match in here somewhere, even for the trickiest customer." Then he looked thoughtful for a moment, before he reached for yet another wand. "Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches."

Harry grasped it and felt sudden warmth in his fingers. He moved it through the air carefully and sparks shot from it.

Ollivander smiled. "Very good, yes there we have it…" He looked very satisfied. "How very curious… Most curious…" He muttered.

Harry gathered that the man obviously wanted him to ask what he was mumbling about, but felt no desire to do so as he had long since tired of this individual. "Yes, well that´s marvelous. What will it be?" He questioned impatiently.

Again Ollivander looked offended, but honestly Harry really didn´t care. He paid for his new wand and hurried out of the shop with Hagrid in tow before the old man could start his tedious small talking again.

As this had been their last stop they made their way back through the wall (Harry now saw how one actually got the brick wall to open) and the leaky cauldron, back into the muggle world.

At the train station they bought hamburgers to eat while waiting for Harry´s train to arrive.

"So… Thank you for accompanying me today and helping me find everything", Harry said sincerely.

"Oh, of course, it ain´t nothin´", Hagrid replied kindly. "Yeh sure cut Ollivander short!" He said after a while, chuckling deeply. Harry snorted, and smiled a little.

"Before I forget", Hagrid pulled out an envelope, "yehr train ticket to Hogwarts."

Harry accepted it and immediately took it out, reading the specifics written on it.

_Kings Cross… I´ll need to take a bus… 1__st__ of September? That´s not long… Wait what?_

"It says platform nine and three-quarters..? Is that correct?"

"Ah, yes! Good yeh reminded me! Forgot yeh wouldn´t know that. The platform is hidden from the muggles, to get to it yeh just need to go through the wall separating platforms nine and ten. It is stuck in between ém." Hagrid explained.

"Oh… That´s clever, I guess…" Harry trailed of thinking of how awesome it was that they could make a platform fit in such a small area, breaking the laws of physics just like that.

They mostly stayed quiet for the rest of the meal, Harry thinking about his very eventful day and processing all the new things he had learned.

They soon said their goodbyes as Harry boarded the train, going 'home' for a final month before start of term.

Contemplating everything while on the train Harry couldn´t help, despite the apparent downs of this other world, to feel overbearing excitement accelerate in his mind at the prospect of this new adventure.

**Notes and explanations:**

Because Harry cuts the exchange at the Leaky Cauldron so short, they are ahead of canon time into Diagon Alley which is why Harry arrives at Madam Malkins before Malfoy.

The reason Harry didn´t get Hedwig – in canon his birthday present from Hagrid – Is that because this is a more reserved Harry, he and Hagrid consequently don´t get the instant good connection they had in canon. Hagrid is simply not comfortable enough with or yet fond enough of Harry to take the initiative to buy him a gift. Also Hedwig will not figurate in this fic later on either, however Harry might eventually get himself another pet…


	6. Chapter 6

**Answers to some reviews:** Again, thanks! to all reviewers **: D** Some of you have made helpful suggestions, which I appreciate. Some have also pointed out some mistakes I´ve made in the text such as referring to the Leaky Cauldron as the leaking cauldron and the expression 'tuning out' as 'zooming out' ( xD I would never have noticed this one myself but when someone mentioned it in a review and I checked it, it really cracked me up. In Swedish which is my first language 'tune out' is called 'zooma ut', which is probably the source of why I mistranslated it into English). Pointing out mistakes such as these is also helpful, so thank you for being observant, some mistakes are quite silly when I notice them. However I won't correct them at the moment because I´m too lazy, but I might go over and correct old chapters sometime in the future. Someone suggested a scene where McGonagall received Harry´s letters of questions; **If** I get down to writing this it will be as a separate one-shot. Someone asked why Harry didn´t wonder why Hagrid had his vault-key; and you´re right he should have wondered. As it is I missed this and therefore so did Harry who might come to think of it later on sometime. All in all **thanks to all of you** for your constructive criticism and encouragement, it is most helpful.

Something I have much trouble with is deciding (for next chapter!) where Harry´ll be sorted. Hufflepuff is out of the question as my Harry is loyal mostly to himself only (as he´s never had anyone else). That leaves: **Ravenclaw**- he´s a bookworm and likes knowledge so it´s not unrealistic. **Slytherin-** He has strong ambitions, however they are not all that big really; he mostly only want to be left in peace free to do whatever he wants to. My Harry doesn´t really have that great of a need to prove himself to others, also status and power over others are not important on his agenda. He doesn´t care much what others think of him as he doesn´t believe any of them care much about him. **Gryffindor- **Feels like a place he wouldn´t enjoy, with all the boisterous and noisy people. However he is still very brave even if it doesn´t show much yet. **I´m undecided****.** Harry has read up on each of the houses a bit from one of his many books as well so he might have a preference; different from canon or the same. If anyone has a suggestion you´re welcome to make it, if you do please also motivate why you think Harry should be in that particular house over the others.

**HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP**

**Chapter six – Another wall**

Harry´s last month with the Dursleys was fun. Harry who loved knowledge because of the advantages it tended to bring with it, now had a newfound huge source of information. Harry was entirely mesmerized by what he found in the many books he had purchased in Diagon Alley. He spent most of his time reading them from cover to cover one after the other.

He loved what knowledge could bring and how it could help him, but he loved learning as such as well. Few things could have made him happier than having this sudden access to new information of which he not long ago knew nothing of.

Every last one of them interested him: the textbooks which spoke of magic he might learn how to perform and astonishing facts of the other world (as he referred to the wizarding world in his mind), as well as the other books which spoke of other facts concerning the wizarding world; the workings, views and traditions of a different culture. It all captivated him to no end.

He had always known there was a lot to the world yet to discover but this other world really did open up a new dimension.

Harry rarely felt gratitude. There had been few occasions when he had felt that such an emotion was reasonable. He knew he was slightly bitter, but honestly he viewed being bitter as his prerogative. However now he did feel grateful on some level being presented with yet more options than he had previously had. There were more things to discover, more places to go and overall just more options. Harry loved options.

Having spent a ridiculously big amount of time inside a cupboard and a small boring community he was finally going to leave. His only regret was that he would presumably have to come back for the holidays. He had always pictured that his escape from this hellhole would be something permanent when it finally happened. Though he had also believed it would be years more before he would get an opportunity to escape so he supposed this what a compromise of sorts.

The Dursleys meanwhile left him alone. Petunia appeared almost happy due to the fact that they were getting rid of him for the time being very soon. She also seemed more wary of him though, as it had finally been confirmed for sure that Harry was 'of _their_ sort'. Vernon had obviously been enlightened as well to Harrys impending departure and the reason thereof. While he was also noticeably glad to soon have Harry out of his house, he seemed to dislike him more than ever judging by the looks he threw at him whenever they happened to be in the same room. The fact that his aunt and uncle ignored him came as no surprise to Harry as this was not much different from how they usually acted towards him, though they indulged in this behavior to a higher degree now.

What was more surprising was that Dudley had also adopted this behavior. His fat cousin and his dense lot of friends had suddenly stopped their attempts at 'Harry-hunting' and similar harassment. Dudley also kept giving him suspicious looks during meals (which was practically the only time Harry ever saw him lately).

Previously Harry had always tried his hardest to avoid his unpleasant cousin and said cousin's unfriendly associations in the biggest degree possible. Meanwhile Dudley and his friends had often tried tracing him down for their bouts of 'Harry-hunting'. Recently however Dudley seemed to actually be avoiding Harry as well. Harry figured Petunia must have told him something in explanation or warning about the latest developments in Harry's life. He seemed if not afraid, very cautious of Harry all of sudden.

Which in fact suited Harry perfectly. Life was good. Well, somewhat better than it had been before anyway. Which was pretty lousy, but Harry would take what he could get. He always had or he wouldn´t have ever had anything.

Time seemed to fly by for once as Harry learnt about everything from wizarding customs to the properties of obscure plants and British history from the perspective of the other world.

Harry also tried finding more details on what happened the night of October 31st all those years ago but he found very few details. It appeared no one knew for sure what had really happened. There were no living eye witnesses apart from himself and possibly Voldemort. What he found odder was how he couldn´t find any real explanation as to _why_ Voldemort targeted the Potter family. He surely had a motive. Of course Harry´s parents had apparently been known as part of the opposition against Voldemort´s rise towards more power.

Harry could not help but get the distinct feeling that there must be more to the story though. Why would Voldemort disappear after attacking and successfully killing Lily and James Potter? Harry supposed something must have happened, _someone _must have done something unknown to the world, keeping Voldemort from killing Harry himself who was only a toddler at the time.

Harry was not a modest person, he knew well when he was good at something and never tried to pretend he didn´t. Neither was he arrogant, he knew his limitations as well. More than anything he took pride in being realistic. There was simply no way a baby could have done… well anything to seemingly banish a powerful, feared mass murderer.

Harry was intelligent and he had the gift of magic. But he realized there was nothing truly remarkable or extraordinary about him; there were others more intelligent and the gift of magic was obviously fairly widespread.

There was nothing special about Harry Potter as such and he knew it. Even if there had been, gifts one does or doesn't possess don´t determine what one accomplishes really, choices do in the end.

He reasoned that since he was a baby, unable to make conscious choices at the time, he didn´t choose to act in any way, so whatever happened cannot have been his doing no matter what some dense people of the wizarding world apparently assumed. That left something James or Lily Potter did.

Or possibly someone else also present at the scene, who would know whether there was? No one would, clearly.

This was a real mess and with nothing more to go on but vague descriptions in a few books and Hagrid´s explanation, there was nothing more he could deduce at the moment.

He remembered one useful detail from Hagrid story; he´d had a godfather. Who was this person and what had happened to him? Hagrid became very evasive when he tried probing further on this, proving there must be something secret about the man and his fate.

Indeed there seemed to be a lot of things for Harry to uncover. He hadn´t decided yet how much of all of this would actually be important or necessary for him to know.

He wanted to know out of pure curiosity and also because unraveling the truth would prove the obvious fact that _he_ didn´t save their world, so they could stop idolizing him. He snorted. How dense were these people if the majority of them actually believed a baby saved them from Voldemort?

Maybe he didn´t actually need to know everything, done was done and nothing would change what had already happened. He couldn´t help still wanting to know.

Meanwhile, what he had managed to extract from his readings concerning Voldemort himself made the man seem like a fanatical sect-leader of some sort (Although one promoting an ideology rather than a religious view). Hungry for power and suffering from an obvious God-complex; the man must have been intelligent and charismatic seeing how many followers he acquired before his sudden downfall but that didn´t change the fact that he appeared to have been insane.

The very ideas; a world with no 'mudbloods' or muggles. Even if succeeding with the task of eliminating the greater part of the world's population, he actually expected a society based off of the inbred remnants led by a crazy psychopath, to survive for long? Or if he didn´t want them all dead, then what? Have the opposers and those of the 'wrong sort' enslaved? Impossible seeing as wizards were obviously in minority and not even all wizards and witches would support such a dictatorship.

Harry realized infinitely many important pieces of the whole story of the crazy sect-leader were missing from his meager findings. There was indeed much yet to be uncovered. He hoped the wizarding libraries like the muggle ones had access to old newspapers. Some nosy reporter must surely have investigated some of this, at some point.

Engulfed with his speculations and research he one day found it was already the last day of August.

Then he realized something else. He didn´t have any muggle money.

_How could I have forgotten something so obvious? It must be possible to exchange wizarding money into muggle money; I must look into that… But in the meantime how am I going to afford the train to London? I guess begging it is, I have less than 24 hours to get there… Damn I have to talk to __**them**__… Well better just get it over with. _

Harry located his aunt and uncle who at the moment were in the living room watching some dull afternoon show on the television.

"Hello."

They both turned their heads and looked at him as if he was some dog who had just vomited on their living room wooden floor. No, like he was the dog´s _vomit _currently soaking into and destroying their floor. Oh, well.

"I have to be at King´s Cross station by eleven tomorrow morning to get to school."

His uncle snorted. "You go to that… _place_ by train?" He asked doubtfully.

"Yes", Harry replied simply.

"Well I have better things to do than driving the likes of you around", Vernon said sourly.

"I wasn´t going to ask you to drive me, I was going to ask if you could lend me some money to take the train. I´ll pay you back", Harry stated in what he hoped was a polite tone.

"Pay us back? With what", Vernon snorted throwing Harry a condescending glare. "But alright, it´s a small price to pay to finally be rid of you from our home… For the time being at least", Vernon added as an unwelcome afterthought, grudgingly pulling out his wallet.

_Excellent. Of course among the few things that would ever urge them to give me anything would be the prospect of getting rid of me… Problem solved. Just one more night, then I´m leaving… It feels like I´ve waited all my life for this…_

"What are you smirking about boy?" Vernon barked shoving some money into his hand.

"Oh, nothing in particular. Thank you, uncle Vernon. Aunt Petunia", he nodded at his aunt who just glared at him with her lips in a thin line.

"I will be leaving early tomorrow morning then. Unless I see you again before then; goodbye", Harry said in a neutral tone of voice, turning away from them to retire to his cupboard once again to do his final packing. He heard his uncle grunt in acknowledgement behind him as he walked down the stairs.

Harry woke very early the next morning. He was going to catch an early train as he wanted to leave Privet Drive and Surrey as soon as possible. It was a good thing he had plenty of time to get to the station as it took him forever to drag his heavy trunk there. He caught the right train though and by nine he was at King´s Cross station.

The station was crowded as usual and Harry felt very uncomfortable. He hated crowds. It took him a while to find the barrier between platforms nine and ten as he not only had such a heavy load to drag with him but was also constantly being pushed in every possible direction by people hurrying by.

_Well this is annoying. Hope I get tall as an adult, this is ridiculous. But that´s the barrier there… I wonder if it´s open yet..? Even if it is there is not much point in hanging around that platform either for two hours… But I can´t very well drag this thing around… _ Harry decided he´d give the barrier a try. He stopped, throwing paranoid glances at the people around him.

_Actually they look so busy they might in fact not notice a boy going through a wall. Here we go… _He briskly made his way towards the solid-looking wall, it quickly drew nearer…

And it really hurt. The wall was every bit as solid as it looked. _Damn, guess they __**haven´t **__opened up the barrier just yet… This is quite embarrassing… _Harry saw stars before his eyes as he lay with his back against the filthy station floor.

He staggered to his feet quickly, looking around. A teenager boarding a train to his left snickered throwing him a fleeting look but other than that no one seemed to have noticed. _Damn my nose is bleeding… Bathroom?_

He had actually walked headlong into a freaking wall. Damn. He felt blood running from his nose and his glasses had gotten a bit smashed, they were bent at an odd angle. His face and his butt (on which he had landed) hurt. His pride hurt more though he concluded while looking around in search of a toilet.

He soon found one. The toilet, being a train station toilet and all looked rather shabby, luckily he couldn´t smell much as his nose was still bleeding.

He looked into the mirror over the sink. _Great. This look is going to be a fantastic aid in trying to make a good first impression. Oh who cares about leaving a good impression anyway, most of them are probably idiots anyhow; most people are. Why does crap like this always happen to me? Gah. Hmpf, better try clean myself up. A good thing I have plenty of time. Of course if I hadn´t had so much extra time on my hands this probably wouldn´t have even happened. But that was seriously utterly inept, how embarrassing. What was I thinking? Wish I knew some of those healing spells already…_

His nose was sore and felt very tender but the bleeding had stopped after a few minutes. After washing the blood from his face he looked a little better. His face had been a bit angled to the side as it hit the wall so his left cheekbone had gotten most of the blow leaving it bruised and a bit swollen. Also his stupid glasses had been pressed up leaving hurting marks between the base of his nose and his eyebrows. The glasses themselves were bent but thankfully they were made out of metal, so Harry simply bent them into their original shape, though they looked a bit worse for wear.

He dug out a book at random from his trunk and spent an hour or so reading it seated inside of a toilet booth. Yes, he could have gone out from the disgusting toilet and tried finding a bench but he felt more comfortable at a more private location with walls and a lock. Especially after his earlier humiliation, he´d rather lie low.

Half past ten he made his way back towards the barrier certain that it must now be open. Once again he made his way towards it, this time with a clenched jaw and more wary steps. There was no pain this time and he suddenly found himself at platform nine and three-quarters. That was at least what the big sign above him said.

This platform was not yet as crowded as the ones he had left behind. There were some people, most of them wearing robes, dragging trunks such as his or kids standing about talking to their parents or some friends.

Harry suddenly remembered the people at The Leaky Cauldron and hoped intensely that no one would recognize him. Thankfully everyone seemed occupied and no one noticed him as he with his head bent downwards briskly walked past them towards the waiting train.

He struggled for a bit before managing to get his enormous trunk inside of a compartment at the end of the train where there was the least amount of people standing about. After he´d finally packed the trunk inside and closed the door he heavily fell into a seat with a sigh of relief. He watched for a bit through the window as more people with both the odd wizarding robes on and those wearing muggle clothing came through the barrier.

He started rummaging about inside of his trunk and finally fished out a knitted black beanie he usually only wore in the winter. He put it on, pulling it down over his scar. There, now no one should be able to guess who he was. These were kids so they couldn´t possible have known his parents or recognize that he looked like them. All they could possibly identify him by would be his scar, which was now covered. Perfect.

He finally relaxed and picked out a few of the books he was going to use in his classes which he planned on going through once more during the train ride.

He tuned out the voices outside and was soon so emerged in his potions-text that he didn´t notice anything going on around him for a long while. He then realized that they were moving. They were out of London and leaving everything Harry had known most of his life behind at a rapid speed. He felt wonderful and contentedly watched as different landscapes flashed by outside of his window.

A few hours into the train ride he was reading about transfiguration in fascination as there was unexpectedly a knock on the door.

"Yes?" Harry slowly lowered his book enough so that he could see over it.

The compartment door slid open revealing a smiling woman with a trolley full of what appeared to be the wizarding versions of candy. "Anything of the trolley, dear?" she asked kindly. Harry cocked his head. He didn´t really like candy much. There had been very few occasions on which he had ever tasted it, one would think this would make it more exotic but instead he had never developed a taste for it. But this candy looked rather interesting and unlike any he had seen so he decided to try some anyway.

He bought a package of Bertie Bott´s Every-Flavoured Beans after the woman had explained that it really contained every flavor one could imagine.

Harry then spent a long time picking out bean after bean and by its color trying to determine what taste they might be before tasting them to test his theory. It was amusing. His favorites so far were grass and potato. In the middle of his bean-testing he was interrupted by another knock on the door.

"Yes?" Harry said once more looking at the door cautiously.

A round-faced dark haired boy Harrys age appeared as the door slid open. "Sorry, have you seen a toad recently?" the boy asked looking sad.

"…No. I´m afraid I haven´t", Harry replied.

"I´ve lost my toad, Trevor!" the boy whined. "I can´t find him anywhere. I _always _lose him!" he continued looking worried.

"Well… Then why do you let him move freely about the train? Don´t you have a box or something to keep him in?" Harry asked.

"I _did_ have him in a box of course, but he looked bored so I thought I´d let him out for just a little bit…" the boy said looking miserable. "I´m gonna go look in the other compartments…" the boy said closing the door as he went.

Harry picked up another book to read (A history of magic) and didn´t look up from it until it was quite dark outside.

Deciding it was time to change into his school robes he did so. The beanie did look a bit out of place in combination with his robes. He ignored it and kept it on anyway; he´d rather look a little silly than have everyone gawk at him, asking him stupid questions about something that happened when he was basically an infant.

Soon a voice rang through the train telling the students that they would be arriving in five minutes and to leave their luggage on the train as it would be transported to school for them.

_Thank God I don´t have to drag that trunk about any more today. I´ll have to look into enchantments making objects lighter before I have to travel with that thing again._

The train stopped and Harry reluctantly went out into the swarming corridor, being slowly pushed by the mass towards the exit. Then they were again on a platform.

"Firs´years, firs´years over here!" Harry recognized Hagrid´s booming voice. "Firs´years follow me!" Hagrid was obviously the ideal person to lead them out of the horde as he was impossible to miss being so much taller than everyone else. Harry and the other first-years followed Hagrid down a narrow path. Harry kept his head down and no one took notice of him. He´d spent many years trying not get noticed (because Harry getting noticed rarely brought him anything positive) and so he was quite good at it by now.

They arrived at a lake and on the other side there was a huge castle perched on top of a mountain. Hagrid explained about this being Hogwarts and many of the first-years were visibly impressed.

Harry didn´t move a facial muscle. He viewed the castle silently. So this was to be his new home for the time being. Not bad, this ought to be an experience.

Apparently they were supposed to travel by little boats to the castle on the other side of the lake.

"That you Harry?" Hagrid´s voice suddenly came from right behind him making him jump. "Funny hat yeh´re wearin´…" Hagrid said good-naturedly looking amused. Harry looked up at him. "Yeah, well I didn´t want people staring if they realized who I was", he replied quietly. Hagrid´s facial expression had rapidly morphed from being cheerful to… concerned? angry? He was looking at Harry intently.

"What?" Harry said self-consciously. "I can take of the stupid beanie later if it´s inappropriate to wear it inside the castle or something…" he said uncertainly assuming that was the source of Hagrid´s strange expression. "Never mind yehr hat, what happened to yehr face Harry?"

Oh, of course, he´d forgotten about that. Harry brought his hand up to touch his nose and winced. It was still tender and his cheek felt swollen. "Ehm… Nothing really"; there was no way he was going to tell anyone of something as utterly embarrassing as having run headfirst into a wall. Hagrid made a grimace but didn´t say anything more on the matter, instead he ordered them to get into the boats, four in each.

Harry shared one with the round-faced boy (who had found his toad), a quiet blond girl and a red-haired boy who kept babbling throughout the ride over the lake. He said something about how he feared they would have to battle a troll as an entering exam. Harry rolled his eyes. He had read about the four houses but had no idea how they were to be sorted. He felt quite confident that the procedure did not include a troll though. The boats moved quickly across the lake obviously driven by magical means.

Soon they stood before a huge oak door. Hagrid knocked and most of the first-years held their breaths as they waited to be let in through the gates of Hogwarts.


	7. Chapter 7

First of all; a big thank you to everyone who left an opinion on where Harry should be sorted, your reasoning truly helped; THANK YOU :-D I would also like praise the HP-Lexicon for its existence; it was very useful when I wrote this chapter.

I also thought I should probably put a disclaimer in here somewhere for good measure, so although it is very obvious; I own nothing of much value, least of all the fantastic HP-universe. How I wish I did :_(

That should be all for now; go ahead and read the chapter. As usual I'm happy for any constructive criticism (or flattery), so do tell me what you think :-)

**HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP**

**Chapter seven - **Different world, same people

The door opened. They were greeted at the door by a tall, rather strict-looking woman.

"The firs´-years, professor McGonagall", Hagrid said stating the obvious.

_McGonagall? Ah, so this is the professor who answered my letter… _

"Thank you Hagrid. I will take them from here." She answered letting them all into the entrance hall.

_Wow. This place is huge. _

As they followed professor McGonagall through the vast hall Harry scanned it, rather impressed at the magnificent room. His books had told him a lot about the ancient Hogwarts and its many myths, about it former and present greatness. Seeing it with his own eyes was another matter entirely from simply reading about it. Now he might even believe some of it. The building, at least, told its own story of past prominence.

They passed a door from which many voices could be heard; obviously the rest of the school were already at dinner or at whatever welcoming event took place as the students returned from summer break.

Harry and the other first years however were led into a small empty chamber. As they entered most of them for some reason hovered much closer together than necessary. Harry being a person appreciating personal space ignored this strange behavior and stopped at a spot a fair bit to the right of the pack.

They just stood there, most nervously throwing glances about the room and at each other, for a few seconds before McGonagall started talking again. "Welcome to Hogwarts. The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seat in the great hall, you will be sorted into your houses…"

She went on for a few minutes about the different houses and the point-system; which would earn or lose their house points depending on their behavior.

Harry had already read about the four houses a few weeks ago. He found the manner in which they were going to be divided rather interesting. It was clever in a way to sort them with personality traits as base, but in many ways perhaps less so. He couldn´t help questioning the sanity of putting all the foolhardy people together and so on. Mixing so many people of the same disposition like that with no opposites to balance things up, well… Honestly it seemed like asking for trouble. Furthermore one could learn more, develop more, interacting with people different from oneself. Even Harry realized this and he didn´t even like interacting much.

Whatever; it wasn´t really Harry's problem. He just couldn´t help getting annoyed by such blatant retrogressive stupidity when he came across it. What annoyed him the most was that this world seemed so keen on keeping up its traditions, putting no stock into development. Seriously, this sorting system had apparently been practiced for centuries; someone ought to have considered it was rather outdated.

As Harry found the system of sorting as such somewhat ridiculous he honestly didn´t care where he was sorted and hadn´t given it any further thought.

"- sorting ceremony will take place in a few moments before the rest of the school. In the meantime I suggest you all smarten yourself up as best you can." McGonagall finished, throwing some disapproving looks around to some of them, Harrys beanie being one receiving target. "I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly." She said before leaving the chamber.

The others were obviously very nervous as they looked terrified and were mostly quiet. An exception was a girl whispering mindlessly about all the spells she had read about wondering which one she´d need for the sorting. Harry tuned her out as she was getting on his nerves. Stupid girl, she really believed they would be tested of their abilities before having learned a thing? Idiot.

Harry was quickly getting quite bored, staring off into space, effectively ignoring his surroundings. His boredom was remedied soon enough though as several ghosts came floating through a wall. Harry knew a lot about them, yet again from his readings. Seeing them, as usual gave a whole new sense of reality to their existence.

The ghosts indulged in some inane chattering in between themselves as well as addressing some of the frightened new students; Harry found the exchanges rather entertaining to watch.

They were interrupted by McGonagall's return. She shooed the ghosts away and ordered the first-years to form a line and follow her. They did and ended up in a much more remarkable room. Harry's eyes widened as he took in the great hall.

Candles floated above the five long tables (one for each house and one for the staff) and the ceiling was enchanted to look like the sky.

It was an amazing view but Harry would have enjoyed seeing this place a lot more if everyone present in the hall had not turned their heads around to ogle at the newcomers as they walked in. He really disliked being put in the spotlight like that, though he was grateful it was not directed only at him personally. No one seemed to take any more notice of him than of the other first-years, thankfully. They were led to the top of the hall, facing the students and with their backs to the teachers table.

McGonagall placed a stool with a frayed, old-looking hat on top in front of the first-years. Harry's eyes widened yet again as the hat suddenly began to _sing_. _What the hell!?_

**Oh you may not think me pretty,  
But don't judge on what you see,  
I'll eat myself if you can find  
A smarter hat than me.  
You can keep your bowlers black,  
Your top hats sleek and tall,  
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat  
And I can cap them all.  
There's nothing hidden in your head  
The Sorting Hat can't see,  
So try me on and I will tell you  
Where you ought to be.**

You might belong in Gryffindor,  
Where dwell the brave at heart,  
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry  
Set Gryffindors apart;  
You might belong in Hufflepuff,  
Where they are just and loyal,  
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true  
And unafraid of toil;  
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,  
if you've a ready mind,  
Where those of wit and learning,  
Will always find their kind;  
Or perhaps in Slytherin  
You'll make your real friends,  
Those cunning folks use any means  
To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!  
And don't get in a flap!  
You're in safe hands (though I have none)  
For I'm a Thinking Cap!

_Oh I see, that is an entertaining way of telling us how they are going to divide us. Huh, well that's somewhat amusing I suppose. At least enough to shock you awake. Creepy thing…_

The applause broke out as the hat finished its song. Harry winched, was all that noise really necessary? He found it quite unpleasant. _The hat's actually bowing to the tables? Oh God this place is weird. Wonder if the hat's really a person who's been hexed into a hat or something… What a boring way of existing… Did I miss something?_

He probably had, because now students were one by one being called by McGonagall who read their names from a long parchment, to go put the hat on. When they did the hat after only a moment, or in some cases after a while, called out to the hall to which house the student in question would go.

_Can it read your mind? How rude. I'd rather not have that… thing read my mind. Are they stupid? Who would want some unidentified, possibly human, singing object to look inside their head like that? How uncomfortable… I suppose I can't really get out of it. But still… You're supposed to just go to the table of the house the hat decides on? Easy enough… Hmm, I like blue and green. Red's okay I guess. I hate yellow though, hope I don't get Hufflepuff and have to wear yellow accessories for seven years… Not that I'm that vain or anything, but yellow's just plain irritating… Good thing none of them have orange, I REALLY hate orange. I'm hungry, I wonder what's for dinner… Oh, I should probably pay more attention; it might be my turn soon. Oh God, they're all gonna stare at me, I hate that. Damn, she'll call my name too, then they're really gonna stare. Wish I could just pull the beanie down over my eyes. Oh I should probably take that off if I'm going to put that other weird hat or whatever it is on… _Harry looked around guardedly. No one was paying any attention to him as they all had their eyes fixated at the person currently putting the hat on.

Harry put the beanie away inside his pocket and tried flattening his bangs down. He was partially successful as he'd had the good sense to put some hair gel into his hair that morning.

The person getting sorted right now was Malfoy, the snobby kid he'd met at that store Harry realized. The hat screamed Slytherin and McGonagall was soon down to "P" on the list. Harry got a bit nervous and shifted uneasily as the list would shortly inevitably reach his name.

"Potter, Harry!" As McGonagall called his name and Harry cautiously stepped towards the hat whispers broke out all over the hall. _Figured._ Harry frowned and fixated his eyes on the floor as he walked. "_The _Harry Potter!?"

_People are so bothersome. Couldn't they just shut up? It's enough having all of them stare at me… Stop looking! God I hate people sometimes._

Harry kept his gaze on the floor as he took a seat on the stool. He was relieved at the darkness when the hat dropped down on his head and covered his eyes.

"**Hmm**", a voice whispered in his ear. Harry jumped, badly. _Don't do that! Do you have any idea how creepy that is if you don't see it coming! _The hat had audacity to chuckle. "**My apologies, Mr. Potter, I didn't mean to scare you. I'm contemplating where to put you, but you already know that. There's no need to be so suspicious, I merely look to see your most prominent qualities and ambitions to properly place you in the most suitable house.** **I'm not going to snoop around your mind unnecessarily; you are quite a paranoid child, aren't you? Now what do we have here? You have a big thirst for knowledge, you want to discover anything and** **everything there is to know. This seems to be your greatest ambition. What is this? You truly are very private aren't you? You don't want attention drawn to your person… Well it is quite clear, although you do have courage, a lot more than you yet know, that Gryffindor is not for you. You are loyal mostly to yourself and thereby no Hufflepuff, although you are hardworking. Slytherin might suit you, but it fits ill with your desire to blend in and you do treasure knowledge high above power or recognition. Better be RAVENCLAW!**"

Harry quickly took the hat of as the thing finally sorted him. _Whatever that hat is, it sure is talkative. Okay, Ravenclaw… That's the blue and bronze banners with the eagle on it… _Harry looked up throwing a glance at his destination. The entire room had once more broken out in applauds. _I wish they wouldn't do that. Well anything to distract them from their gawking I suppose…_

Harry then happened to glance to his side and found that someone, namely McGonagall was staring attentively at him, not clapping as she was holding the parchment of names. Her grim expression made Harry uncomfortable. He gave her a questioning look before quickly lowering his gaze to the floor again as he made his way towards the Ravenclaw table. He hurriedly sat down at the end of the table. The applause finally died out and the sorting resumed. Harry let out a sigh of relief.

On his left sat one of the new students who had been sorted a while before him; a tall boy with dark blond hair and excited brown eyes. He turned to Harry whispering, as the sorting continued; "Hey, my name's Terry Boot, I guess we'll be in the same class." He stretched out his hand and Harry cautiously shook it. "Hello. Harry Potter", he answered quietly.

"Do you know why everyone started whispering when they called your name?" Terry Boot asked curiously.

"Yes. It has to do with something that happened when I was a baby. Apparently I'm famous because of it", Harry explained, his tone betraying his dislike for this fact. "Some insane wizard cursed me but it backfired, since a lot of people lack common sense they assume it was thanks to something I, who was a toddler at the time, did", Harry continued rolling his eyes.

"Oh. I have never heard that story", Terry replied looking interested. "You see I had never actually heard of the wizarding world before my letter came, my parents are both muggle. I'm really happy to be here though, this place is amazing." He said looking around the hall excitedly. "Can you believe that ceiling? It's remarkable."

The boy babbled on for the rest of the sorting like this, with Harry just nodding or saying yes or no from time to time. Only one more student was sorted into Ravenclaw after Harry (a girl with very light blond hair named Lisa Turpin).

An old man, sitting in the middle of the staff table got to his feet as the hat was removed from the room. The man looked quite extraordinary with his long silvery grey beard and half-moon shaped glasses. He opened his arm wide grinning at them all. "Welcome! Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet I would like to say a few words and here they are; Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you", and with that he sat back down while the students clapped and cheered. Harry just stared. Was that supposed to be the headmaster? _Do they actively try to be weird? That performance really doesn't give me a lot of faith in his ability to rule a school. Not to be judgmental, but what the hell? I mean… Food! Damn I'm hungry._

Big piles of all type of food one could think of had appeared on the dishes in front of them. Harry was reluctantly impressed.

"Wow, how did they do that?" Terry said amazed with a thrilled look before starting to load his plate.

Harry looked at the people surrounding him. They were all busy gathering food to their plates. Surveying the hall he concluded that there were about 60-70 students in each house. At his table were, apart from the older students and him, eight new students. Beside him was Terry Boot, who was even now chattering away apparently not yet having noticed Harry wasn't listening anymore.

Opposite Harry sat Lisa Turpin and on her right a dark-haired girl Harry remembered as Padma Patil. A bit further up the table on that row was a boy with dark hair whose name Harry couldn't remember, already in conversation with an older student to his right. On the other side of the anonymous older student was a somber looking girl with black wavy hair and an air of arrogance about her, neatly cutting up the food on her plate. Isabel McDougal if Harry remembered correctly. On Terry's left there was chubby boy with curly hair and kind light brown eyes, whom Terry was now talking to as he seemed to have finally noticed Harry's lack of interest in his monologue. Anthony Goldstein Harry heard the chubby boy introduce himself as to Terry.

A few seats to the left of Goldstein sat the last of the new students; Kevin Entwhistle. He wasn't talking to anyone but appeared to, like Harry, be interestedly studying the hall and the other students. They locked eyes for a moment. Harry stared expressionlessly and Entwhistle looked away in favor of putting some potatoes on his plate. _I want potatoes too. _Harry realized he hadn't taken any food yet. He abruptly gathered a bit from some of the tastier-looking dishes and began eating, now ignoring his new environment, instead focusing on the best-tasting meal he had ever had.

Throughout the meal Harry could on and off feel the looks he was given by various curious students of all the houses. He took care to keep his eyes on the table, doing his best not to pay any attention to the uncomfortable feeling of being watched.

Dessert was another lavish affair with every sweet dish one could think of. Harry didn't enjoy this as much as dinner though as he didn't really care much for sweets. Instead of paying any them much attention he looked up at the High Table studying the teachers.

Hagrid was drinking big gulps from his goblet looking like he was enjoying himself immensely. _Does he have a drinking problem? Wait a minute I recognize that guy! It's that strange man from the Leaky Cauldron… _Harry had spotted the man in the turban whom he had noticed on his way out from the Leaky Cauldron the day he went to Diagon Alley with Hagrid.

Turban-man looked rather nervous at the moment, talking to a man with dark hair and a big hooked nose. _I have a strange feeling about that man… Ouch! What the..?_ As Harry watched the turban clad man his scar suddenly flared with pain. He grimaced slightly rubbing his head. It went away as suddenly as it had appeared.

_That's very strange… Maybe I just have a headache coming on or something… because of stress? But that's never happened before; my scar doesn't normally hurt when I'm getting a headache, what… Wait are they talking about me!? I don't like this, would people stop looking at me!? _

Harry had once more looked up at the staff table only to notice McGonagall and Dumbledore immersed in a quiet conversation while glancing at him. Harry stared at them with a slight frown, catching McGonagall's eyes.

She looked inquiring, then a bit startled before swiftly looking away. She turned her gaze back to Dumbledore and they stopped glancing at him. _They were talking about me!_

Harry spent the rest of the meal unnerved, wondering why the headmaster and McGonagall had been talking about him and what they had been saying.

A while after Harry's unpleasant discovery the dessert dishes disappeared and the headmaster once more started talking. This time a lot more coherently, about some of the school rules. "- this year the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." _Why does he want us to snoop around that corridor..? If he actually wanted to keep us away from a place there's no way he'd be dim enough to tell a few hundred children to stay away from there for some utterly mysterious unspecified reason. He must want to lure us there… but why? Unless he really is that dense, how'd I know? I don't know him; he does seem have his head pretty far up his ass… Even if he wants us to actually go to that corridor I will most certainly refrain, whatever his plan is it's probably not good, I think he might be senile… _

"And now before we go to bed let's sing the school song!" Dumbledore gave his wand a flick and golden ribbons shot from its end forming lyrics for them to sing along.

**Hogwarts, Hogwarts, hoggy warty Hogwarts,  
Teach us something please,  
Whether we be old and bald,  
Or young with scabby knees,  
Our heads could do with filling,  
With some interesting stuff,  
For now they're bare and full of air,  
Dead flies and bits of fluff,  
So teach us things worth knowing,  
Bring back what we've forgot,  
Just do your best, we'll do the rest,  
And learn until our brains all rot.**

_...Yes, most definitely senile._ To Harry's revulsion the entirety of the ridiculous song was carried out by Dumbledore and most of the students. _Oh my God, that's horrible._

"Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here. And now bedtime. Off you trot!" Dumbledore said happily, wiping his eyes, after the unmotivated applauds had ceased. Harry thought he might be sick.

"Hello all confused-looking first-years", a girl said smiling while approaching the end of the Ravenclaw table. "My name's Penelope Clearwater and I am one of the Ravenclaw prefects. If you're wondering something you're welcome to come to me. But first of all I'm going to show you to the Ravenclaw common room and dormitories. So if you would please follow me…" She trailed of leading them out of the great hall.

They followed her to the west end of the castle up a long winding staircase. Harry got his first view of the moving paintings as did the other first-year Ravenclaws of muggle background. Boot even ran up to one of them asking the figures within it a number of nosy questions, while Entwhistle let out a gasp of surprise when he noticed the first of the moving portraits. Harry settled for watching them in silent fascination.

They soon stood before a door with neither a handle nor a keyhole. Instead it had a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle.

"Hello dears", the knocker said as they approached the door. Terry looked shocked. Harry rolled his eyes; he had sort of gotten to a point where nothing surprised him anymore.

"Hello Aves", Penelope replied. "You have a question for me?"¨

"Always. If I say "Everything I tell you is a lie," am I telling you the truth or a lie?" the knocker asked.

Penelope looked to be thinking for a few moments. "A lie. It can't be the truth without contradicting itself and therefore being a lie, but some of my statements can be lies, and this is one of those statements."

"Very good, perfect sense of logic as usual", the knocker said as the door swung open.

"This is how you get into our common room; each time you want to be let in you must answer a question Aves give you. If you answer it correctly you're granted access", Penelope explained to them as they all entered.

They found themselves in a wide circular room with a domed ceiling painted with stars. The windows were big and arched, offering a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains. It was furnished with several huge bookcases stretching along the walls and a number of comfortable looking armchairs in front of the fireplace as well as a number of desks with chairs surrounding them. The walls were decorated with blue and bronze wall hangings and the carpet was a midnight blue decorated with stars, much like the ceiling. Harry instantly loved the room, he felt very at home. Much more so than he ever had at his actual home.

"I understand that you must all be very tired after such a long eventful day, so unless you have any questions I'm going to take you all straight to your dormitories", Penelope told them looking at them questioningly.

"Will we start classes first thing tomorrow..?" the girl named Lisa Turpin asked.

"You will go to breakfast in the great hall where you will receive your schedule. After breakfast you will go to your first class. You'll probably find it difficult finding your way around this place at first, I know I did, but you'll learn your way around in no time."

Most of them nodded in acknowledgement. "Do you have any more questions right now?" All of them shook their heads. "Then come with me", Penelope said walking through a door on the opposite side of the room from the entrance.

Beside the door was a marble statue of a woman wearing a diadem. "That statue is of one of the four founders of Hogwarts, Rowena Ravenclaw, after whom our house is named", Penelope told them as they passed.

They entered a long corridor with a dark wooden floor and walls in a light shade of blue with small bronze eagles painted on. As in all magical paintings the eagles all moved.

Seven doors lined each side of the lengthy corridor. "The doors on my right are the girl's dormitories and the doors on my left are the boy's. You all have door number three on each side", Penelope told them pointing the girls to the right and the boys to the left. "Your things are all inside already. You should probably go to bed soon as tomorrow will be your first day of classes. Goodnight and I'll see you tomorrow", she said smiling and waving to them, disappearing in through door number one on the right side.

Harry who was the closest to the correct dormitory door opened it and stepped inside, the other four boys entering right behind him.

The room was circular with five beds standing in a wide circle along the walls (short-end against the wall). It had a black carpet and the walls Harry realized, showed an accurate model of their galaxy, with images of all the different planets and moons. _I think I love this place._

Harry went straight to the bed in front of which his trunk had been neatly placed. He opened it up and got out his toothbrush and nightclothes (which were one of Dudley's old enormous T-shirts and a VERY lose pair of sweatpants).

As Harry got back from the bathroom Boot, Goldstein and the dark-haired boy whatever his name was, were conversing vigorously practically pouring their life stories out to each other. Harry glanced to Entwhistle who was minding his own business, organizing some of his possessions into his bedside drawer.

Harry stretched, just now realizing how exhausted he was. "Excuse me, but could you keep it down. I would like to sleep", He said addressing his three new talkative roommates.

"Oh of course, no problem", Goldstein said giving him a faint but kind smile. "Anthony Goldstein, we haven't really met. Though I've heard of you of course", he said thoughtfully looking at Harry interestedly. Harry suppressed a sigh as he took Goldstein's hand and shook it. "I'm sure you have. Just don't believe everything you hear", Harry grumbled exasperated. Goldstein just looked at him curiously.

"So you are the famous Harry Potter? No offence but you're not really what I expected", the dark-haired and apparently rude boy whom Harry couldn't name broke in, studying Harry with a slightly condescending facial expression.

"_Really_? How disappointing then", Harry said coldly glaring at him. "I would continue a discussion with you on whatever your expectations might have been on a total stranger you know nothing of, except for some rumors of an event which took place when we were both babies. But as I already said, I'm tired, so if you would keep your voices down it would be greatly appreciated", Harry said in an even tone before promptly turning his back on them and climbing into his big four-poster bed, drawing the thick midnight blue drapes firmly shut around him. He crawled under the covers with a sigh of relief.

Finally free from the staring eyes of strangers Harry felt much better than he had in a long while. He could hear his name quietly mentioned from time to time on the other side of the room for the next few minutes or so. From what he gathered Goldstein and what's-his-name were filling Boot in on the story of why Harry Potter became famous.

_Whatever. Let them talk, I'm too tired to care. I'm so glad this day is over with. I love these rooms. This is quite a transition from a cupboard. Just too bad I have to share them with those people. Wherever you go, there just is no escaping annoying people. They're everywhere. Sigh… I'm so tired, and tomorrow the classes will begin, that ought to be very interesting… I really like it how they cook the potatoes here, I wonder who cooks anyway? I'll have to ask sometime… Those beans were kind of cool, can't believe they make candy which taste like potato, not that I'm complaining… Hope the Dursleys house burn down and I get emancipated, that'd be great… Not that I actually want them dead or anything, just as long as I don't have to spend time with them I'm happy… Or with any other annoying people, which rules out most people… What is so special about that corridor? I wonder if they're hiding something there..? Dumbledore seems nuts or at the very least senile… Why were they talking about me? Were they really..? I wonder… Mhm, oh I'm sooo tire- _

Harry slept like a rock that night, entertained by a number of pleasant dreams of new worlds and wonderful discoveries. He dreamt of opportunities and foreign places but morning arrived, much too soon.


	8. Chapter 8

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

**Chapter eight – Suspicions **

Harry awoke with a start. _This feels unfamiliar… What the..? This isn't my bed, it's too wide. And the ceiling is… Right, Hogwarts… Hogwarts! I'm actually here. Today's gonna be interesting… _Harry opened one side of the hangings surrounding his bed and peeked out at the room. No one else appeared to be up yet.

He unpacked some of his things and went to the bathroom. After a shower he changed into his new uniform (_Walking around in a dress is going to take some getting used to…) _and smeared some hair gel (from a bottle he'd stolen from aunt Petunia before departing Privet Drive) into his hair, combing it as flat as possible. Looking into the mirror he grimaced. His left cheekbone was still a bit swollen and the bruise covering it had turned a dark bluish color. His nose also looked a bit bruised up. _Wonderful._

As he reappeared in the circular room his new roommates had unfortunately awoken and were all busy getting ready.

Harry ignored them and walked over to his trunk packing a bag of some paper, a ballpoint pen and all his schoolbooks as they didn't yet know which classes they would be having today.

"Hey you! We never actually introduced ourselves yesterday. I'm Michael Corner", the dark-haired boy whose name Harry hadn't remembered the day before said with a cocky grin. "I've heard a lot about you from my dad you know, they've put you pretty high up on that hero pedestal in the wizarding world. Making you sound all special. You look pretty ordinary to me, I guess you hide it pretty well, huh?" Corner continued in a doubtful tone raising an eyebrow. "Did you get into a fight or something?" He asked pryingly, looking at Harrys bruised face with curiosity.

Harry looked at this annoying individual named Michael Corner for a moment before replying. "That's none of your business." With that he turned his back on the four other boys, leaving the room.

He made his way out of the common room and down the winding staircase. Thankfully he'd been paying attention the night before as they were shown the way to the common room by that prefect, and he soon found the Great Hall.

Apparently he was early as there had been few students crowding the hall ways and not many were yet seated in the great hall.

Harry sat down close to one end of the Ravenclaw table. It was the end closest to the staff table. Harry helped himself to some porridge and covered it with milk, thankful there weren't much people in the hall yet.

He finished eating quickly, getting more uncomfortable as more students soon filled in and some of them sat down not far from him, looking at him every now and then. No one took a seat all that close though as he glared at anyone who appeared to be contemplating venturing into his close proximity. He really didn't feel up to handling any morons this early in the morning, especially not on his first day of school. His hostile looks seemed to keep anyone who would have approached him away at the moment, which he appreciated.

Having eaten he wanted to get out of the now much too crowded room filled with the chattering voices of hundreds of students.

_Right, I need my schedule first. I hope they plan on handing them out soon. Hopefully before any of those idiots gawking at me start asking me any dim questions. Hmm, that ceiling IS kind of cool… I wonder how they did that. It's much cooler than a skylight, I want one of those in some room whenever I get a house of my own somewhere…_

"Excuse me, Mr. Potter? Here's your schedule for this semester", a very short wizard who was suddenly at his side squeaked.

Harry who had been lost in thought staring at the ceiling jumped in surprise before staring at the small man and accepting his schedule. _I need to start paying better attention. It's a bit embarrassing even Hagrid manages to sneak up on me. It's more understandable with this guy, he's tiny… _"Oh, thank you, umm…"

"I'm Professor Flitwick, I teach charms but I am also the head of Ravenclaw house", the tiny man swiftly informed him. "As I am your head of house you're free to come to me about any problems you might have or if you're wondering anything", Flitwick added with a reassuring smile. 

Harry nodded. "Thank you Professor Flitwick", he said before looking down at his schedule. _He seems tolerable enough. That's good… Now where am I going?_

He eyed his schedule thoughtfully a moment before realizing the Professor had not continued down the table to hand out the rest of the stack of papers he was holding.

Harry looked up again throwing Flitwick an enquiring look. "Mr. Potter I must request that you come with me after I've handed the rest of these out. Don't worry, I'll inform the teacher of your first class that you have a valid excuse for your absence", he said looking a bit hesitant. "No need to look so worried Mr. Potter you are not in trouble, just finish your breakfast in peace and I will be back in a while", he said with another reassuring smile before finally continuing down the table.

Harry looked after him disbelievingly. _Now what? He's going to make me miss my first class? What the hell!? What does he want to talk about anyway? What is wrong with the teachers at this place? They're either insane, weird, gossiping about me; quite indiscreetly I might add! or making me miss my first class without even giving me an explanation. This has better be good… _Harry was getting increasingly annoyed as he sat waiting with his arms folded over his chest.

An older Ravenclaw student actually approached him trying to make small talk after a while. Harry rudely brushed said student of with a glare before going back to his silent moping. Being polite to idiots with their inane attempts at conversation when he was in a bad mood was not Harry's strong suit; he found it tiresome enough when he was in a good mood. He knew they were only interested in talking to him because he was famous.

His eyes wandered to the teachers table. Turban-man was nowhere in sight, he must have already finished eating like most; the hall was slowly emptying as the first class of the day was approaching. _Which I will apparently not be attending _Harry thought bitterly.

_That's the teacher Turban-man was talking to yesterday though, _Harry thought, noticing the black haired man with the big hooked nose seated at Dumbledore's left.

As if he had felt Harrys gaze said man looked up, meeting Harry's eyes. The man's already grim expression immediately turned into a glare.

Harry glared right back, refusing to be the one to break eye contact. _Now what's this guy's problem? He's looking at me like I killed his favourite goldfish, made fish sticks and tricked him into eating them or something. He looked kind of sour before, but this is ridiculous. What did I ever do to you asshole?_ Harry intensified his glare thinking about all the people who had annoyed him one way or the other all throughout his life. The hook nosed man sneered, his expression filled with contempt.

_God I'm going to kill myself if I have to stay surrounded by these people for seven years. This isn't going to work out, maybe I should have gone to a regular school where there are at least__** some**__ sane people. But then I'd have to live with Them. Even with that dumbass Corner, I'd rather share habitation with those four than the Dursleys, I suppose. Seriously, this guy won't look away either. _Harry snickered a bit, raising an eyebrow. _That's kind of childish of him. Okay I'm doing it too but I'm eleven and I realize it's childish of me… That guy's got to be over thirty. Wonder what he teaches anyway? If he does teach that is… Maybe he does something else around here, like Hagrid. But he doesn't really look like the janitoring type or anything along those lines… I think he's a teacher… Yeah, you keep glaring weirdo, I can keep this up all day if you want to. _

"Mr. Potter?" the squeaky voice of Flitwick sounded at Harry's side making him flinch in surprise, unfortunately breaking his eye contact with the mysterious glaring teacher.

"Yes Sir", Harry mumbled a bit grudgingly.

"If you would please follow me", Flitwick said, walking as briskly as his short legs would carry him towards the doors. Harry grabbed his bag, throwing another glance at the High table. The mysterious glaring teacher wasn't looking his way anymore.

Harry hurried after Professor Flitwick who led him up several staircases, through a few corridors and into a long rectangular room with rows of beds along the walls. It looked kind of like a small hospital. Flitwick closed the door behind them turning to Harry.

"I'm afraid I must hurry along to teach a class, Professor Dumbledore will be here shortly to talk to you. The reason you're here is because a few of the professors who got a look at your face yesterday alerted me of some concerns, and having seen you up close myself I understand their alarm", the professor said in a serious but mild tone.

Harry just looked at him questioningly. "…Huh? What do you mean? It's just some bruises, nothing serious…" Flitwick held up a hand signaling for him to be quiet.

"I understand this is not something you find easy to talk about. I really must go, I have a class waiting. But if you need someone to talk to about this or anything else that's troubling you my door is open later. Madam Pomfrey is right next door and I'm going to send her in before I go. I would have liked to stay and talk to you about this but I'm already running late", Flitwick gave him an apologetic look, squeezing his right shoulder in a reassuring manner before crossing the room and exchanging a few words with someone in the adjacent room through a half-open door. He then turned to leave through the door he and Harry came, but before exiting he turned to Harry once more. "It is going to be alright Mr. Potter, you have nothing to worry about", he said before exiting with a last apologetic smile.

_What the hell was that about? These people are completely nuts. Now what?_ Harry scanned the room incredulously and spotted a woman, whom he assumed was Madam Pomfrey, coming out of the adjacent room.

"Good morning, Mr. Potter, I'm Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse", she said with a serious but friendly expression.

"Um… Hello?" Harry stared at her confusedly.

"If you would please have a seat", she said gesturing towards the closest bed.

"Okay… Could you perhaps tell why I'm here though?" Harry asked while taking a seat on the bed.

"Didn't Professor Flitwick explain that?" She asked in surprise.

"Yes, he said something about it being because I have some bruises on my face… But couldn't that have waited? Seems a bit unnecessary to miss my first class just because of that…" Harry trailed off in slight exasperation.

"Yes, that is why you are here. Those are some nasty looking bruises; I have a salve which will heal them in just a day or two. I'll apply it now, and then I want you to put the salve on tonight as well as tomorrow morning and possibly tomorrow after dinner as well if it is not yet gone by then. It should help some with the swelling also", she stated in a businesslike tone. "Do you have any other injuries?" She added sternly looking him in the eye.

"…Um, no… "Harry said hesitantly with his eyebrows raised. _Wow, talk about making a big deal out of nothing… I mean come on it's just a bruise… And why is she looking at me all suspiciously, like she thinks I'm lying?! I don't understand these people, at all. Why would I be hiding an injury from her? What…?_

Then the doors to the hospital wing swung open and Dumbledore swept in. He made his way straight to Harry and Madam Pomfrey who was still looking at Harry suspiciously.

"Hello Harry, I'm so pleased to meet you my boy!" Dumbledore said with a big jovial smile.

Harry winced. He truly hated overbearing people who acted all familiar with people they didn't know. He hadn't liked what he saw of the headmaster the previous night and he liked him less by each second he spent in his presence. He was too… cheerful. It was unnerving.

"Professor Dumbledore", Harry replied coldly nodding at the headmaster who was beaming down at him.

Dumbledore's smile faltered for a second. "How have you been Harry? Do you like it here at Hogwarts so far?" Dumbledore asked warmly.

"Well… Yes. But I have not even been here 24 hours yet as you know… And I have yet to have had an opportunity to attend any classes", Harry said pointedly looking at Dumbledore as if he were a complete moron.

Dumbledore looked somewhat contrite at that. "Yes, it is most regretful that you should miss your first class, but do not worry Harry, it is merely one class and it will be easy for you to catch up; the first lesson of each subject is merely introduction and I am certain your classmates will fill you in on anything of importance you might have missed." Dumbledore said his eyes twinkling in a manner Harry instantly disliked. "There is an important reason as to why you here after all", Dumbledore said the twinkle in his eyes dimming.

"It has been brought to my attention that you have some injures... I must agree that this does look awful", Dumbledore said in a much more grave tone of voice watching Harry's face intently.

Harry only just managed to refrain from rolling his eyes. _Him too? What is this? How sensitive are these people, getting all worked up over a simple bruise? God. I mean I know it's in my face and it looks kind of ugly, but seriously, it's not like there's any permanent damage. It's a damn bruise, it's going to fade away before they're done fussing about it at the rate they're going. These people ought to get their priorities straight; don't they have jobs to manage? The headmaster must have a lot of time to spare seeing as he can waste it hanging around here fussing over a meager bruise… They're staring at me. I shouldn't tune out like that… But it's hard not to in this kind of company._

"Really headmaster, it's just a bruise, nothing to worry about", Harry told him in a reasoning tone.

"How did you get this bruise Harry?" Dumbledore asked gently looking at him with a thoughtful expression.

Harry blinked. _What difference does that make? Nosy people. There's no way I am telling them that I walked into the wall at Kings Cross before the barrier opened. That's just too embarrassing. Hell no. So what am I going to tell them? I could just say that it's none of their business, it isn't. But this is the headmaster after all, he will probably not appreciate being told to keep his nose to himself. Hmm, they're staring at me again… I should probably not have waited so long before answering his nosy question…_

"It is alright Harry. You can tell us. You are safe here, please tell us the truth", Dumbledore said soothingly looking at Harry with a, for him, unusually gloomy expression.

Harry looked at him blankly. _What? "You are safe her;" What's that supposed to mean? Why would he need to reassure me of that? Why am I really here? What are they planning? If he would assume I didn't think I was safe here there must be a reason why I wouldn't be, but he's trying to lure me into a false sense of security…_ Harry narrowed his eyes watching them attentively._ Or is my paranoia getting away with me again? I do not trust these people. There's something they're not telling me. What are they looking for? What do they really wish to know? _Harry realized he had sat contemplating for quite a while again in silence. _Oops._

"Why do you want to know that? I don't see how it matters", Harry finally settled for.

"Of course it matters", Dumbledore said still looking very thoughtful. "Please Harry, tell us what happened. Do you have any other injuries, covered ones?" Dumbledore asked quietly looking Harry up and down speculatively.

"_No_. Madam Pomfrey already asked that, and no I don't. I don't see why you would think I do", Harry said annoyed.

Now Madam Pomfrey spoke up again. "In that case you wouldn't mind changing into a hospital gown so that I can check you over just to make sure?" she said holding out a tiny piece of fabric. Harry's eyes widened.

_I'm not getting undressed in front of them! Are they kidding me?_

"No. I'm not taking my clothes of", Harry stated in an offended tone, folding his arms in front of his chest stubbornly. "If I was injured, why would I hide it knowing you could fix it for me? That's insane", Harry said exasperated.

"You won't tell us how you bruised up your face so badly", Dumbledore stated sadly "As you would hide that I can't help worrying that you might also hide other injuries, rather than having to explain how you got them."

"Okay, fine. I walked into a wall, happy now?" Harry muttered, looking at the floor in embarrassment.

Madame Pomfrey and Dumbledore stared at him for a moment. "Harry… I don't want you to lie. You can tell us the truth", Dumbledore stated, a disappointed look painting his features.

"What? No, that's what really happened." Harry said looking up sharply.

Dumbledore shook his head slowly looking dejected. "Okay Harry. If you say so. You should go now, to make it in time for your second class of the day", Dumbledore said gently.

"Let me just apply the salve before you go", Madam Pomfrey said firmly before carefully applying the sticky mess to Harry's bruise. "Now remember to put some of this on tonight and tomorrow morning", she said handing him the small jar.

"Okay, thank you Madam Pomfrey", Harry replied. He hurriedly grabbed his bag and stuffed the jar inside it. "Goodbye Madam Pomfrey, Professor Dumbledore."

"Goodbye Harry. If you change your mind and want to talk about anything that might be bothering you remember that my door is always open, my boy", Dumbledore said cheerfully, but his voice also held an underlying note of sadness to it.

"…Right. Sure", Harry said giving the headmaster a quick what's-wrong-with-you? look before almost running out of the hospital wing.

_What in the world was all that about? I figured the headmaster must be senile, but the rest of them? What is wrong with people in this place, they're all insane! They make no sense whatsoever. Wait, where's my schedule? Oh no… _As Flitwick had announced that Harry wouldn't be making it to his first lesson he'd simply shoved his schedule inside his dress- Ehm, robe-pocket. Now it wasn't there anymore.

_It must have fallen out when I sat down on that bed. Meaning I have to run back there. Sigh. I hope Dumbledore has left at least._ No such luck. As Harry returned to the hospital wing a few minutes later he could hear Madam Pomfrey's and Dumbledore's voices coming from the adjacent room (which Harry could only assume was Pomfrey's office) as the door was slightly ajar.

_Maybe I can just sneak in and grab it, they can't see out here. Great, there it is… _Harry grabbed the wrinkled paper still lying on the bed he'd sat on for the strange interrogation and was just about to leave, when the conversation coming from the other room caught his attention.

"- Harry Potter." _They're talking about me._

"I know he's Harry Potter Albus, that doesn't change the fact that he's an eleven-year-old boy, a child. You saw all the warning signs too. He was ashamed to tell us what had happened to his face. You saw how he looked at the floor, refusing to meet our eyes… Then his explanation, after a long silent pause, where he was obviously trying to come up with a plausible lie, he said he'd walked into a wall. It's always a wall or a door. The stories are always something along those lines, it's so obvious. He's abused."

"Poppy I know what you mean, I felt it too... He's so different from how I had… He's not anything like I thought he would be… But we don't have any proof. Until he actually tells us they're hurting him… We can't just assume anything, maybe he did get hurt in an accident. I can't believe they would… He's Petunia's nephew, they're his family. I can't believe they would treat their someone of their own blood badly. We must be mistaken, Harry said himself that it was an accident…"

"Oh Albus you fool, of course he did. That doesn't mean it's true. He shows so many signs. Can't you see how guarded he is? How distrustful he seems? It's all there, those muggles are mistreating him."

Dumbledore gave a long sigh.

Harry quietly snuck out of the hospital wing unnoticed. He rounded a corner before leaning his back against the wall behind him. _They think the Dursleys beats me up. _Harry laughed. His laugh soon turned bitter though.

_They may not hit me, but they never treated me any good either. They ignore me. When they don't they provoke me. Talk me down. They hate me and they always made sure I knew it._

'_**It's all there, those muggles are mistreating him.'**_

_It doesn't matter what they think anyhow. Now I at least get what they were trying to get me to say. Still. It was just a damn bruise. What they've done to me is so much worse than a bruise. But they won't care about that because it doesn't show. Not in a way that they'll understand anyhow._

Harry abruptly took off running through the corridor to get to his lesson, transfiguration, which was thankfully on the same floor. He made it there just on time.

**HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter nine – Potions and exploring the premises**

A few days had gone by since Harry arrived at Hogwarts. In many ways things weren't much different from life as Harry knew it in the muggleworld. He kept mostly to himself, as he had always done.

To begin with many of the other students had attempted to approach him, some with nosy questions and some with to Harry no apparent reasons. He couldn't decipher their motives for showing interest in him, as he had never before really been the target of any positive attention. He assumed they had their motives though.

As he was not very gracious to those initially showing interest in him, they one after the other came to the conclusion that it was rather pointless trying to make friends with him.

As for the classes they had attended so far, Harry found them as easy as he had found his studies in the regular muggle school he had attended the previous years.

He always worked hard, reading ahead, which paid off. They had still not done much practical work though, as they in most subjects had gone to merely one or two lessons as of yet.

Harry had been delighted to discover though that what little practical work he had attempted with his new wand had worked perfectly.

Also it was certainly a nice perk not having Dudley and his mindless followers around to worry about too. Adding on top of that the wonderfully elaborate meals they got each day, far better than anything Petunia had ever cooked, Harry felt his life overall had improved.

His only regret was that the students didn't have private rooms. The Entwhistle boy was perfectly tolerable as he seldom spoke, and when he did whatever he had to say had a point to it. The other three dimwits Harry could have gladly done without though, thank you very much.

The muggleborn who'd chattered away at him at the welcoming feast, Terry Boot as well as his newfound friend Anthony Goldstein were the kind of well meaning, constantly happy people who would just never shut up.

The leader of their little gang of three, Michael Corner was without question Harry's least favourite roommate though. He was not simply annoying; he was a complete asshole as far as Harry was concerned.

The boy was cocky, arrogant and he had made it a habit to ask Harry rude questions while throwing him looks of condescension. It was as if he'd made it one of his goals to prove in some demented way that he was better than the famous Harry Potter.

Harry himself thought the rumors going around of the power he must possess, having (supposedly) defeated Voldemort were exaggerated and ridiculous, but Michael Corner was a bigheaded, ignorant loudmouth who needed to learn some manners.

In opposition to Corner's obvious resentment of Harry's fame, most of the student body appeared very interested in him; well they had to begin with.

The first couple of days, aside from those actually approaching him, everyone he walked by seemed to gawk at him. Harry hated this more than anything. He was used to going fairly unnoticed and he despised this unwanted attention he received from strangers everywhere he went.

As he glared at anyone and everyone he caught staring at him and had handled those who dared fling him nosy questions increasingly coldly, he had started to get a reputation already of not being, let's just say, the approachable type. The number of strangers walking up to him for no other reason than their rude nosiness had decreased as the days went by.

Today was the last day of Harry's first week at Hogwarts. The introduction to the last of the subjects Harry was taking this year was today, potions. He'd learned that the teacher glaring at him from the Head table at the start of the week had been the professor teaching this subject, professor Snape. From what Harry had seen from afar the man was about as pleasant as Harry at his worst, on his better days. Not that Harry cared one way or the other; he was just hoping Snape was a competent teacher.

When Harry had found his way down to the correct dungeon classroom, he took a seat at an empty desk near the front row.

He was among the first students there but the rest soon filed in. Harry knew much of the work in this class would mean doing labs, meaning they would most likely need to work in pairs. As they were even numbered, eight Ravenclaws and six Hufflepuffs, he harbored no hope of being allowed to work on his own, which would otherwise have been his preference.

He'd just never been a team worker.

As it was he just hoped that whoever became the odd one out and was forced to take a seat next to Harry wouldn't prove to be terrible at potions and hold him back.

Boot and Corner sat down together, leaving Goldstein to look around for someone to partner with. Harry held his breath wishing that annoying blabbing idiot would not choose him. As Goldstein took a seat next to Isabel McDougal Harry thanked the gods he had brushed Goldstein's attempt at conversation off rather rudely just that morning.

Turpin and Patil who had been inseparable ever since the first day of school naturally sat down together and the Hufflepuffs had all sat down with one of their housemates.

That left Kevin Entwhistle who entered the room just then. He took the seat next to Harry, merely giving him a nod. Harry returned the gesture, grateful he'd gotten the one that hardly spoke. Entwhistle seemed to be a very quiet person, Harry'd never heard him say anything more than absolutely necessary and he had never addressed Harry.

Harry sat in silence, trying not to listen to all the inane chattering going on around him. Then after a few minutes the teacher swept in, rather dramatically Harry thought, with his robes billowing behind him. Stopping at the front with a very serious expression he gave a speech, equally as dramatic as his entrance, talking about the fine art of potions making.

_Well, at least he's passionate about his subject, if a bit melodramatic about it…_

Then, when Snape called their names he paused at Harry's.

"Ah… Harry Potter. Our new… _celebrity_", he commented smoothly, voice laced with obvious mockery.

Harry just stared back, replying with a 'yes, sir.'

_Does he dislike me just because I'm famous? Like I asked for any of that, I can understand that spoiled brat Corner, but a grown man? Not that I care what he thinks of me, as long as I get a fair grade. _Harry narrowed his eyes. _Perhaps he was a fan of that Voldemort character? But he's a professor; surely he'd understand a small child did not defeat a powerful wizard? _

"Potter!" the professor suddenly barked.

Harry straightened his back a bit, "Yes, sir?"

"Can you tell me what I would get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Snape asked, staring at Harry with what could only be interpreted as poorly concealed contempt.

"A sleeping potion called the Draught of Living Death, sir." Harry stated in a neutral tone.

Snape looked at him intensely for a second before reluctantly confirming his answer. "That is correct. Can you also tell me the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?" Snape sneered at him.

"They are the same plant, which also go under the name aconite", Harry replied without missing a beat.

Snape gave him an even uglier sneer before confirming and barking at them that they were expected to be taking notes. Next he addressed a Hufflepuff named Hannah Abbott, asking her where one would look for a bezoar. At the correct answer he awarded her with one point.

Harry raised an eyebrow, not missing the fact that he answered two more elaborate questions than that just before, only being rewarded with a sneer.

Snape passed around a few more questions and declared that Ernie MacMillan, the boy sitting next to Abbott, was a dunderhead for answering one wrong.

Soon they were to attempt brewing their first potion.

Entwhistle and Harry hardly spoke as they worked, simply motioning to who was to cut up what.

When they were about halfway through, their potion looked just about right in color and texture, and both of them watched it carefully, waiting for the right moment to add another ingredient. A shadow fell over Harry as Snape bent forward to look in their cauldron. He said nothing, but just stalked on to the next bench, not before glaring at Harry as he looked up.

"He doesn't seem to like you very much", Entwhistle said, uttering the longest sentence Harry had ever heard from him, except when answering a factual question posed by a teacher.

"No, few people do. Though he seems a bit overly hostile towards someone he doesn't know at all", Harry replied thoughtfully. Entwhistle just nodded, before putting in the next item due into their brew.

At the end of the lesson their potion was, as far as Harry could tell, perfect. It looked exactly like it was supposed to. He bottled it up and handed it in to Snape who just glanced at the bottle frowning, before muttering "acceptable."

Harry refrained from rolling his eyes as he nodded before taking his depart from the cold dungeons.

Harry was actually glad the next day to wake up to a day free from lessons. While every subject had gone well for Harry, there was a lot to take in what with the new school and completely new subjects.

Saturday he decided that aside from studying in the library he would also explore the castle and the grounds a bit more. He hadn't been outside since they got there and felt that a bit exposure to fresh air was probably a good thing right about now.

Arriving at the school library which was already familiar to Harry, he set course towards his usual table in the back, which was nicely secluded behind several bookcases. It was quiet this far back in the library and Harry sat down with a content sigh, looking out the window next to his table which showed a view over the forbidden forest, before getting to work.

After a few hours of studying his texts for his classes and finishing his homework for the upcoming week, Harry packed up his things to leave.

As he got closer to the exit he stopped in his tracks as he heard his name being mentioned in a half whisper from behind a nearby bookcase. He should have gotten used to this already; people commonly appeared to entertain an unhealthy obsession with him. Nevertheless he could not help stopping to listen when he heard someone talking about him. There were several voices, boys.

"- strange. I say people should watch out for him, he must have some unknown powers, having defeated you-know-who. He must be as bad, to have managed that. And have you seen the look on his face? All… cold. No, that bloke gives me the chills."

Harry peered through the bookcase next to him, over some books in the row in his line of sight. He recognized the three boys hunched together over a table, whispering about him. They were first years, Gryffindors. The one who had just spoken had blonde reddish hair; Harry could not remember his name.

"I think he's stuck up, personally. Thinks he's better than the rest of us just because he's famous." A boy with flaming red hair and a lot of freckles, Harry vaguely remembered being named something starting with 'w', answered. Walker? Warren? No.

"He just seems like a typical Ravenclaw bookworm to me." The last boy, who had dark skin and Harry recalled as being surnamed Thomas, replied. "Yeah, he's a bit more withdrawn than most of even the other Ravenclaws, but maybe he's just shy." He continued shrugging.

"I think he's dangerous. He's so weird-"

"Look who we have here", the redhead said interrupting the blonde, shoving him lightly and pointing towards someone Harry couldn't see.

"Granger! Where have you been? You actually leave the library between classes? I never would have guessed. Hey, wait, where are you going?" The three boys got up from the table, assumingly to pursue Granger.

_Assholes. No wonder I don't like people; most of them are ignorant jerks. Poor Granger, I sure am glad I don't share a house with those, though Corner isn't much better. He'd probably get along great with ginger, better hope they don't get together. Never mind, too many idiots, not enough time._

Harry walked straight through the castle and out through the main doors. He wanted to get outside right now. It was a grey, gloomy looking day, but the light wind felt nice. After walking along the big lake they had crossed on the first night for a while Harry took a turn, walking in the direction of the forbidden forest. He was not planning on entering it, who knew what those strange people saw fit to harbor right next to a school. But not far from the forests' outlining Harry spotted a cabin. He thought it best not to get to close, there was smoke coming out of the cabins' chimney, so supposedly that was someone's house. However as he was just passing it a familiar booming voice called from behind him: "Harry, that you?"

He turned around and faced the huge man he hadn't seen up close since the welcoming feast.

"Hello."

"Yeh out doin some explorin are yeh Harry?" Hagrid asked with a big grin.

"I guess you could say that. I thought I'd look around the grounds for a bit today when I don't have any classes", Harry replied warily. So that was Hagrid's house then? The cabin suited the huge man somehow.

"Yeah, I s'pose yeh haven't had much time for all that much explorin with all yehr new classes this week. Do you wanna come in for a bit of tea? I've made some buns just today", Hagrid offered with the same kind grin.

Harry hesitated. He was wary to just follow a huge, intimidating-looking man he barely knew somewhere secluded. However his instincts told him Hagrid was rather harmless and he'd had Harry at his mercy the whole day they were in Diagon alley without resorting to murdering him and selling of his organs or anything like that. He decided he'd take his chances.

"Yes, thank you. That would be nice." He followed Hagrid inside the cabin. The furniture were huge, to accommodate the huge man no doubt. Hagrid bid him to sit down and Harry half-climbed onto one of the chairs at the sturdy table. Hagrid sat out tea and a plate of big round buns.

Harry tentatively sipped at his tea, which tasted okay. Cautiously he tried to take a bite from one of the offered buns. It was hard as a rock. Biting with all his might he got a piece off, which he swallowed with difficulty.

"You made these?"

"Oh yeah, I make those a lot, good to have along with some tea", Hagrid replied while chewing on a bun of his own. "Yeh like 'em?"

"They taste like rocks rolled in a layer of flour. So no, not really", Harry replied honestly, putting the ball of whatever ingredients made up that barely edible rock, on the table.

Hagrid looked surprised. "oh", then he chuckled. "Guess I aint much of a chef", he said light-heartedly. "So Harry, how are yeh liking the school? Classes been good?"

Harry nodded, "Yes, I like it here. The classes seem interesting", he added civilly.

"Knew you'd like Hogwarts", Hagrid said cheerfully, "Meet any new friends?" he added inquiringly.

_New friends? He actually thinks I had any before?_

"No. I don't have… friends. I don't generally like people all that much. People don't tend to like me very much either", Harry stated indifferently.

Hagrid's grin faltered slightly. "I think you seem like an alright lad, I'm sure you'll find some people who'll understand yeh".

Harry just shrugged, drinking his tea. "I prefer being left alone, mostly. I know I'm not very agreeable, I know I'm not nice. But I don't think most people are either, not really. I'm just more honest about it." Hagrid looked at him thoughtfully.

"I think yeh might find yeh like some people Harry, only yeh met the right ones." Hagrid said after a moment of silence.

"Perhaps." But Harry doubted it. He knew what people could be like, and once you knew what people can be like at their worst it was hard to see anything else in them, at least for him.

"Thank you for the tea. I think I'll be on my way, I want to see the rest of the grounds before it gets dark", Harry said politely after a while.

"Yehr welcome Harry, it was fun having yeh. Yeh're always welcome to visit any time yeh feel like it", Hagrid replied warmly. Harry looked at him searchingly for a moment before getting up to leave.

"Yes, thank you. Perhaps I will see you another time." He thought that Hagrid somehow was proving to be… tolerable. He didn't know if he actually liked him, but the huge man had proved to be a very kind person, and he did appear more intelligent than be originally seemed.

"Bye Harry", Hagrid said as Harry left, closing the door behind him. This kid was odd, a little reserved, but he was growing on him nevertheless. Hagrid could see that life had not been easy on the boy, so maybe his outlook and way of acting shouldn't be so surprising. Hopefully Harry would eventually see that the world could be a good place, and that people weren't all bad, that he did need others to be happy. He hoped he would, because under that hard exterior Hagrid thought he could sense something more.

An hour or so later Harry had finished his tour of the grounds, not finding anything truly remarkable. There was the quidditch field, but none of the teams had been out practicing, unfortunately, Harry looked forward to seeing someone flying on a broom.

As he walked through the great hall he felt watched. Stopping and turning his head he saw Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick on a set of stairs, looking down at him, while talking. He just frowned before continuing on his way towards Ravenclaw tower. _What is with these people?_

Meanwhile up on the steps the teachers continued their exchange, which did concern Harry.

"I remember his parents from their time at the school. Lily also had a passion for her studies; he has obviously inherited her hard-working nature, which is good. But she was such a nice, outgoing person. This boy is just… He appears to reject anyone who attempts to befriend him. His parents were both popular, pleasant people. This boy shuns everyone. Have you noticed he is always alone? Even at meals he always sits away from everyone else, at a corner, never involved in the others' discussions. It's not healthy, something is wrong. I cannot see Lily or James in him, apart from his appearance. And then the bruises he had when he arrived…" McGonagall trailed of looking disturbed.

"I know Minerva, he does seem strangely antisocial. But he does well in class. Social interaction is voluntary; I can hardly approach him about that. Perhaps he is just a very solitary type of person. But I have also wondered about the bruises, as did Madam Pomfrey and Albus. However like the headmaster has told us, before the boy himself says anything to indicate his injuries were anything but accidental, there is not much we can do", Filius stated with a sigh.

"But with his injuries and the way he acts, you suspect the same thing as I do, don't you?" McGonagall said grimly.

"Yes. Yes I do."

****

Authors note:

Hi, I know it's been a long time since I updated. My inspiration for this fic just sort of fell asleep I'm afraid. I want to finish this story, but I must tell you that it might be long between updates for now. **This story is on hold at the moment. **I do plan on eventually finishing it though. When I have finished the story completely I will edit a lot of the beginning which I am not happy with and repost all of it. But as I haven't decided exactly where this fic is going and don't feel much inspiration for it right now, it is on hold for now.

I want to thank everyone who has reviewed and provided constructive criticism and encouragement, once again, this has been and always is, most helpful. Also I really do intend to finish what I have started, eventually, cross my heart :P


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